A convicted murderer was put to death in a Louisiana prison using nitrogen gas, the first time the state has used the controversial method as it resumed executions after 15 years.
Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was pronounced dead at 6:50pm on Tuesday at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in an execution that lasted 19 minutes.
One official present said the execution was ‘flawless.’
It was the fifth time nitrogen gas was pumped through a gas mask to essentially suffocate a death row inmate.
The previous four were conducted in Alabama, with the first nitrogen execution in United States history being performed in January 2024 on Kenneth Eugene Smith, a man who killed a 45-year-old woman more than 30 years ago.
Smith, much like Hoffman, was alive for 22 minutes while nitrogen gas flowed into his lungs.
Hoffman was convicted of the abduction, rape and murder of Mary ‘Molly’ Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive who was killed in New Orleans.
At the time of the crime in 1996, 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.
Hoffman’s lawyers waged numerous court battles on his behalf, hoping to spare his life.
His attorneys claimed the nitrogen hypoxia method is unconstitutional and violates his Eighth Amendment right that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
They also said it infringes on Hoffman’s freedom to practice religion, specifically his Buddhist breathing and meditation in the moments leading up to his death.
‘Mr. Hoffman sincerely believes that he must practice his Buddhist breathing exercises at the critical transition between life and death,’ his lawyers said.
Despite pleas that reached all the way up to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land voted 5-4 against intervening in Hoffman’s case.
Hoffman’s Buddhist spiritual adviser knelt beside him while chanting as he slowly suffocated, NOLA.com reported.
Witnesses said they entered the chamber at 6:17pm and that gas began to flow into Hoffman’s mask at 6:21pm.
Hoffman was strapped down to the table and most of his body was covered with a thick blanket, though people present reported seeing him making a sacred hand gesture in Buddhism – a index finger and thumb pointing toward one another.
Shortly after the gas was turned on, Hoffman began twitching, witnesses said. They added that his hands were clenched and his head jerked as the gas flowed.
He took his last visible breath at 6:37pm and the curtains were closed to the chamber shortly after.
The prison warden, Darrel Vannoy, pronounced him dead at 6:50pm when the curtains reopened.
Despite Hoffman’s panicked movements, Louisiana prison officials have maintained that execution by nitrogen is painless.
‘Jessie no longer bore any resemblance to the 18-year-old who killed Molly Elliott,’ said one of his attorneys, Cecelia Kappel, in a statement following Hoffman’s death.
‘The State was able to execute him by pushing out a new protocol and setting execution dates to prevent careful judicial review and shrouding the process in secrecy.’
Andy Elliott, the husband of the woman Hoffman killed, called the execution ‘bittersweet news’ in a statement Tuesday night.
‘There is relief that this long nightmare is finally over but also renewed grief for Molly and sadness for Mr. Hoffman’s family, whose nightmare began when mine did and who’ve also had to go through nearly 30 years of this gut-wrenching process through no fault of their own,’ Elliot said.
On Tuesday afternoon, a small group of execution opponents held a vigil outside the rural southeast Louisiana prison at Angola, where the state’s executions are carried out.
Some passed out prayer cards with photos of a smiling Hoffman and planned a Buddhist reading and ‘Meditation for Peace.’ Others held signs proclaiming: ‘Let Jessie Live!’