Death row inmate in Louisiana seeks immediate judicial review to delay nitrogen gas execution.
A Tense Wait for Justice: Louisiana's Historic Nitrogen Gas Execution Faces Final Legal Hurdles
The Louisiana justice system braces for a groundbreaking moment on Tuesday evening, as lawmakers prepare to carry out the state's first execution in 15 years, using nitrogen gas. Essentially starving the condemned man, Jessie Hoffman Jr., of oxygen, this method has been employed only four times across the United States, with Louisiana becoming the second state to adopt this practice.
Hoffman's lawyers are орqeusting a last-ditch effort to halt the execution, filing numerous challenges in both state and federal courts. These woolly legal maneuvers seek to invalidate the method as unconstitutional and infringing on Hoffman's religious freedom, especially his Buddhist practices.
Despite these challenges, Louisiana's Attorney General, Liz Murrill, remains firm, asserting that the state is long overdue to deliver justice to the families of the victims. Murrill expects at least four individuals on Louisiana's death row to be put to death this year.
Hoffman stands accused and convicted of the 1996 murder of Molly Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive in New Orleans. In line with Louisiana's protocol, which mirrors Alabama's, Hoffman will be strapped down onto a gurney, having a tight-fitted respirator mask - similar to those used by painters and sandblasters - secured on his face. He will then breathe in pure nitrogen gas, which will deprive him of the oxygen crucial to maintaining bodily functions.
The nitrogen gas will flow for at least 15 minutes, or five minutes after his heart rate reaches a flatline indication on the EKG, whichever is longer.
Proponents of nitrogen gas executions maintain that the method is seemingly painless, while Hoffman's lawyers argue it is torturous. Each inmate executed using nitrogen in Alabama has exhibited varying degrees of involuntary movements associated with oxygen deprivation, according to witnesses.
Nitrogen gas executions, or nitrogen hypoxia, have been adopted by four states - Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma - as an alternative to lethal injection, due to difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs.
The use of nitrogen gas gained traction in 2015 when Oklahoma introduced it as an alternative method if lethal injection drugs were unavailable or unconstitutional. Alabama began developing protocols in 2018 and conducted the nation's first nitrogen gas execution in 2024. Louisiana followed suit in 2025, with Jessie Hoffman's execution marking the second instance of this practice in the United States.
While the legal challenges surrounding nitrogen gas executions continue, other states, such as Arkansas, are considering similar legislation to revive executions, which have seen a sharp decline over recent decades due to legal battles, a shortage of lethal injection drugs, and waning public support for capital punishment.
- Despite the legal challenges raised by Jessie Hoffman's lawyers regarding the constitutionality and religious freedom aspects, Louisiana's Attorney General, Liz Murrill, is firm in authorizing the historic nitrogen gas execution, scheduled for Tuesday evening.
- If authorized, the execution of Jessie Hoffman Jr. will make Louisiana the second state, following Alabama, to employ nitrogen gas, a method in which an inmate is essentially denied oxygen.
- Jessie Hoffman, on Louisiana's death row for the 1996 murder of Molly Elliott, will breathe in pure nitrogen gas during the execution, a practice that proponents argue is seemingly painless, though Hoffman's lawyers and some witnesses consider it potentially torturous.
