Louisiana to execute inmate with nitrogen gas for first time today. What to know.

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Louisiana officials are planning to carry out its first execution by nitrogen gas on Tuesday after a judge denied death row inmate Jessie Hoffman's eleventh-hour arguments that it violates his religious freedoms.

Hoffman's attorneys say that he's deeply sorry for the brutal rape and murder of 28-year-old Molly Elliott in 1996 but are arguing that he shouldn't be executed by the controversial and largely untried method, partly because it violates his religious freedoms. Only one state, Alabama, has used nitrogen gas to put inmates to death, making history with its first such execution last year.

Hoffman, 46, is scheduled to die on Tuesday despite a judge's order last week temporarily halting his execution in a ruling that was overturned by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. Hoffman's attorneys appealed that, and the matter is with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Just hours before the execution, a Louisiana judge heard last-minute arguments from Hoffman's attorneys focusing on a state law that they say "prohibits the government from interfering with the exercise of religious faith." The judge denied their request to stop the execution.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill criticized the move as "an attempt to see what will stick."

If the execution moves forward, it will be Louisiana's first in 15 years, and the nation's seventh this year. Three other executions, all by lethal injection, also are scheduled this week in Arizona, Oklahoma and Florida.

Here's what to know about Hoffman's execution.

What did Jessie Hoffman do?

Molly Elliott left work at her advertising firm in the French Quarter of New Orleans around 5 p.m. on Nov. 27, 1996, and walked to the Sheraton hotel garage where she parked her car. She was supposed to meet her husband at his office at 6 p.m. so they could go out to dinner together, police told reporters at the time.

Hoffman, who was just 18 years old and had worked at the garage for about two weeks, kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her to withdraw about $200 from an ATM, prosecutors said. Even if Hoffman had let her go at that point, prosecutors said it would have been "the most horrific night of her life."

"The ATM video tape shows the terror on Ms. Elliott’s face as she withdrew money from her account, and Hoffman can be seen standing next to his victim," prosecutors said in court records.

After getting the cash, Hoffman forced Elliott to drive to a remote area of St. Tammany Parish as she begged him not to hurt her, prosecutors said, citing Hoffman's eventual confession to the crime. Hoffman then raped Elliott and forced her to get out of the car and walk down a dirt path in an area used as a dump, prosecutors said.

"Her death march ultimately ended at a small, makeshift dock at the end of this path, where she was forced to kneel and shot in the head, execution style," they said. "Ms. Elliott likely survived for a few minutes after being shot, but she was left on the dock, completely nude on a cold November evening, to die."

Her husband identified her body after it was found on Thanksgiving Day, prosecutors said.

Hoffman acknowledges the crime and is deeply remorseful, his attorney, Cecelia Kappel, told Paste BN.

"He takes full responsible for this very tragic, awful crime," she said. "He is so sorry to the family of Molly Elliott and he wishes to have opportunity before he dies to have a face-to-face conversation where he can apologize in person."

Read more about Molly Elliott: Husband, mother remember the remarkable young woman

Who is Jessie Hoffman?

Raised in and around housing projects in New Orleans, Hoffman grew up in an "overwhelming environment of chaos, violence, poverty and substance abuse," according to Hoffman's application for clemency.

Hoffman experienced physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of those closest to him, and witnessed multiple stabbings, shootings and fatal murders, in addition to losing seven family members to murder, his attorneys wrote in his clemency application.

When he was just 14 months old, Kappel said that Hoffman's mother burned his hand on a stove as punishment, requiring a 19-day hospital stay and leaving him with a mangled hand.

"This guy was physically and mentally tortured through child abuse and wasn't helped out by social services or the system," his attorney, Kappel, said. "He was abandoned. And now the state is seeking to torture him to death even though he has proven that he is capable of rehabilitation and change and remorse."

She said that Hoffman has become a different man than the one who was capable of such a brutal killing.

"Through his process of inner recovery, and the healing of fragmented memories, Jessie also been able to more fully reckon with the depth of the harm he has caused," according to his application for clemency filed with the Louisiana Board of Pardons. "Anyone who knows him can attest to how deeply remorseful and troubled he is by what he has done and the harm he caused in taking the life of Molly Elliott."

Hoffman, the father of a son born after his imprisonment, became a Buddhist about 20 years ago, finding with it "a moral structure and practice that has guided and nurtured him, helped him to find peace, and heal," according to his clemency petition.

When and where is Jessie Hoffman's execution?

Jessie Hoffman is set to be executed just after 6 p.m. CT on Tuesday at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana.

How will Jessie Hoffman be executed?

Louisiana plans to execution Hoffman using nitrogen gas, which will deprive him of oxygen as he inhales nitrogen through a mask and he asphyxiates. "All execution processes shall be performed in a professional, humane, sensitive and dignified manner," according to the state's execution protocols obtained by Paste BN.

Alabama became the first state in the nation to use the method last year and remains the only one to do so, although it's also legal in Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has a bill awaiting her approval to use the method in her state, while Ohio and Nebraska have reintroduced similar legislation this year.

Last week, Chief District Judge Shelly Dick temporarily blocked Hoffman's execution, saying that it could cause him "pain and terror" and that he showed a "substantial likelihood” of proving that nitrogen gas executions violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Dick cited accounts from all four of the Alabama executions that "describe suffering, including conscious terror for several minutes, shaking, gasping, and other evidence of distress."

The witnesses observed the inmates' bodies "writhing" under their restraints, "vigorous convulsing and shaking for four minutes," heaving, spitting, and a "conscious struggling for life."

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has defended the method as “constitutional and effective," and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has argued in court records that witness accounts from members of the news media are unreliable.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Dick's ruling on Friday, and the matter is now with the U.S. Supreme Court.

What are Hoffman's remaining hopes to stop execution?

Louisiana Judge Richard Moore held hearing on Tuesday over whether the nitrogen gas executions violates Hoffman's right to practice religion.

Hoffman's attorneys argued that "a core component of his Buddhist practice is breathing meditation and techniques."

"Mr. Hoffman sincerely believes that he must practice his Buddhist breathing exercises at the critical transition between life and death," they said. "He believes that if he has traumatic final moments, they ... can lead to a negative rebirth."

Attorney General Murrill has argued in court filings that nitrogen gas doesn't pose "a substantial risk of severe pain" and cited a court case that found that “every method of execution involves a period during which the inmate experiences psychological pain because he realizes death is imminent.”

"That does not automatically render his execution unconstitutional," she wrote.

Moore sided with the government and turned down Hoffman's request to stop the execution.

Hoffman's last hopes lie with the Supreme Court, the Louisiana Supreme Court, and one other pending piece of federal litigation. Even so, a spokesman for the attorney general's office told Paste BN: "He will be executed tonight at 6 I can confirm."

'Gruesome' and 'cruel?' Louisiana about to find out about nitrogen gas executions

What does Molly Elliott's family say?

Molly Elliott's husband, Andy Elliott, tells Paste BN that 29 years after his wife's murder, he has "become indifferent to the death penalty vs. life in prison without possibility of parole." But he said that he's in favor of the execution if it the easiest way to end "the uncertainty that has accompanied these many years."

"But, his death will not provide closure," he continued. "Anyone who has experienced a tragedy of this magnitude will recognize the absolute truth − Molly’s and my families and friends lost a great human being to a senseless series of crimes, the reasons for which we still don’t know. The pain is something we simply have learned to live with."

He added that "all we want is finality, so we can stop dreading the reminder of the tragedy every time the subject of his execution re-emerges."

"My sincere hope is either to get the execution done or commute his sentence to life in prison without parole, one or the other, as soon as possible," he said. "Then, we can put Molly’s brutal death in the past. That’s not closure, but it’s the best we can hope for."

Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Paste BN