Louisiana used nitrogen gas to put a man to death Tuesday evening for a killing decades ago, marking the first time the state has used the method as it resumed executions after a 15-year hiatus, the Associated Press reports. Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, The nitrogen gas flowed for 19 minutes during what one official characterized as a “flawless” execution.
Witnesses said Hoffman appeared to shake involuntarily or had “some convulsive activity.” Three witnesses — including two members of the media — agreed that, based on the protocol and what they learned about the execution method, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Gina Swanson, a reporter with WDSU, described the execution as “clinical” and “procedural.” She said there was nothing that occurred during the process that made her think, “Was that right? Was that how it was supposed to go?”
Hoffman declined to make a final statement in the execution chamber. He declined a final meal. It was the fifth time nitrogen gas was used in the U.S. after four executions by the same method — all in Alabama. Three other executions, by lethal injection, are scheduled this week — in Arizona on Wednesday and in Florida and Oklahoma on Thursday. Hoffman was convicted of murdering Mary “Molly” Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive who was killed in New Orleans. At the time, Hoffman was 18 and has since spent much of his adult life at the penitentiary in rural southeast Louisiana, where he was executed Tuesday evening. After court battles this month, attorneys for Hoffman turned to the Supreme Court in last-ditch hopes of halting the execution. Last year, the court declined to stop the nation’s first nitrogen hypoxia execution, in Alabama. Hoffman’s lawyers had unsuccessfully argued that the nitrogen gas procedure — which deprives a person of oxygen — violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The lawyers, in a last-ditch appeal, also argued the method would infringe on Hoffman’s freedom to practice religion, specifically his Buddhist breathing and meditation in the moments leading up to death.
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