A federal judge in Louisiana has blocked the state’s first-ever death row execution by nitrogen gas, which was due to take place next week.
U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, stopping the state from immediately moving forward with the execution of convicted murderer Jesse Hoffman Jr. The execution of the 46-year-old would have been Louisiana's first in 15 years.
Lousiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she disagreed with the decision and would immediately appeal the decision.
In her ruling, Dick wrote that it was in the "best interests of the public" to be able to examine the state's "newly proposed method of execution on a fully developed record."
She added she was particularly troubled that the state released only a redacted protocol to the public until the day before the preliminary injunction hearing on Friday.
"The public has paramount interest in a legal process that enables thoughtful and well-informed deliberations, particularly when the ultimate fundamental right, the right to life, is placed in the government's hands," she wrote.
Dick said Hoffman cannot be executed until his claims are "decided after a trial on the merits and a final judgment is issued."
Last month, Hoffman, who was on death row following his conviction in the 1996 murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott in New Orleans, filed a lawsuit against the state and sought to block his March 18 execution date.
During a hearing last week, his attorneys argued that the execution method of nitrogen hypoxia is cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution and infringes on Hoffman’s freedom to practice his religion, specifically Buddhist breathing and meditation exercises.
They also said the method, which involves an industrial, full-face mask, will ignite and worsen his diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder and claustrophobia, causing mental torture. State attorneys argued that nitrogen hypoxia has proven to be successful in Alabama, saying the method is seemingly painless and an approved method under Louisiana law.
We disagree with the district court’s decision and will immediately appeal to the Fifth Circuit. https://t.co/sbbiqaumUR
— Attorney General Liz Murrill (@AGLizMurrill) March 11, 2025
Murrill told The Associated Press last month that she expects at least four people to be executed this year. There are 56 people on Louisiana’s death row.
Louisiana is following in the footsteps of Alabama, which has executed four people using nitrogen gas. During last week’s hearing, state officials described Louisiana’s execution protocol using nitrogen gas to be nearly identical to Alabama’s.
Under the protocol, the subject is strapped to a gurney, forced to breathe pure nitrogen gas through a mask placed on their face, depriving them of oxygen.
Hoffman was just 18 when, prosecutors say, he abducted his victim, Elliott at gunpoint from a New Orleans parking garage on the night before Thanksgiving Day in 1996. He allegedly forced her to withdraw $200 from an ATM, then raped and shot her to death.
