As Louisiana prepares for its first execution in 15 years, lawyers for a death row inmate are seeking a last-minute court order to stop the execution from happening.
Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday evening using nitrogen gas. This would be the first time Louisiana has used this method.
To date, nitrogen gas has only been used four times in the United States, all in Alabama.
Hoffman's attorneys argue that the method is unconstitutional, violating the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
They also claim it infringes on Hoffman's religious freedom, specifically his Buddhist breathing and meditation practices in the moments before his death.
Louisiana officials say it is time to deliver justice to the victims' families after a 15-year pause in executions. Attorney General Liz Murrill expects at least four death row inmates in Louisiana to be executed this year.
After court battles earlier in March, Hoffman's attorneys are appealing to the United States Supreme Court to halt the execution.
However, the court declined to intervene in the nation's first nitrogen hypoxia death row execution in 2024.
Hoffman's attorneys have launched a series of legal challenges in state and federal courts in a last-minute attempt to halt his execution.
A state judge is set to review one of these challenges on Tuesday morning, but with the hearing occurring just hours before the planned execution, Hoffman's legal team faces a significant time constraint.
The 19th Judicial District Court has issued a temporary restraining order, preventing the state from executing Hoffman, pending the morning hearing.
Attorneys from both sides understand that the restraining order will expire at 10:30am EST (2:30pm GMT). The execution is scheduled for the evening, several hours after the order's expiration.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill anticipates the execution will proceed as planned, stating that "justice will finally be served."
Hoffman was convicted of the 1996 murder of Mary "Molly" Elliot, a 28-year-old advertising executive, in New Orleans.
The execution method involves strapping Hoffman to a gurney and fitting him with a full-face respirator mask. Pure nitrogen gas will then be pumped into the mask, depriving him of oxygen.
The gas will be administered for at least 15 minutes, or five minutes after his heart rate flatlines on the EKG, whichever is longer.
The state asserts that this method is painless, while Hoffman's attorneys argue that it constitutes torture.
Each inmate put to death using nitrogen in Alabama has appeared to shake and gasp to varying degrees during their executions, according to media witnesses, including AP. The reactions are involuntary movements associated with oxygen deprivation, state officials have said.
Currently, four states – Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma – specifically authorize execution by nitrogen hypoxia, according to records compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Alabama first used the lethal gas to put Kenneth Eugene Smith to death in 2024, marking the first time a new method had been used in the US since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.
In an effort to resume executions, Louisiana's GOP-dominated Legislature expanded the state’s approved death penalty methods in 2024 to include nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution. Already in place was lethal injection.
Over recent decades, the number of executions nationally has declined sharply amid legal battles, a shortage of lethal injection drugs and waning public support for capital punishment. That has led a majority of states to either abolish or pause carrying out the death penalty.
Hoffman is scheduled to be the seventh death row execution in the US this year.
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