State of Louisiana Kills Jessie Hoffman By Suffocating Him with Nitrogen Gas
Earlier tonight, officials from the Louisiana Department of Corrections killed Jessie Hoffman by suffocating him with nitrogen gas. This was Louisiana’s first execution in 15 years and first ever using the experimental new method called “nitrogen hypoxia.” Jessie Hoffman was guilty of the rape and murder of Molly Elliott. He had just turned 18 years old when the crime happened and had been sitting on death row for the past 27 years. He was 46 years old.
“What happened tonight was predictable,” said Samantha Pourciau, Senior Staff Attorney at the Promise of Justice Initiative. “Jessie Hoffman suffered because the state chose to use the end of his life as an experiment. It was gruesome and prolonged and the very thing that our constitution was designed to protect us, as Americans, from enduring – the very thing our country’s framers thought would set us apart from the nation we sought to leave. Instead, Louisianans will wake up tomorrow knowing what our state has done and reading about a killing that inflicted psychological pain, suffering, and terror.”
“Governor Landry's yearslong pursuit of this execution concluded with more pain and more trauma. Tonight, while many in our state cannot afford groceries, the state used countless resources to kill one man. The governor cannot cloak this in fighting for victims, because today we learned that this is not, in fact, what this family wants. This is what the governor wants. This has been in service of no one, but the bloodlust of our state government,” said Pourciau.
“On a personal note, as a Jewish person, tonight stings more deeply. I weep tonight for the pain that Mr. Hoffman endured because the pain of my ancestors was not enough. As we are taught in the Torah, the death penalty makes us all unjust, more especially when it is carried out in darkness and secrecy as it was tonight,” Pourciau concluded.
The killing proceeded despite decades of appeals and related legal claims in both state court and federal court. The most substantial case, Hoffman v. Westcott (Civil Action No. 25-169), was filed in light of the State’s actions which deprived Mr. Hoffman of due process and ultimately ended his life in a manner which amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. A preliminary injunction granted by the federal district court on 8th Amendment grounds stayed the execution but was overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. PJI and partners appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court where justices denied relief.
“We don’t have to kill people to say that killing is wrong,” said Samantha Kennedy, Executive Director of the Promise of Justice Initiative. “When the government kills its people, shrouds the process in secrecy, and our leaders proclaim some great victory on our behalf, we should all be afraid of what the government can do and who our leaders are – who Governor Landry is. State violence used as retribution doesn’t make Louisiana safer or move us closer to a world of peace and prosperity. If our government can kill us, then they can do anything to us – and they will do it in our name.”
“Governor Landry has Jessie Hoffman killed entirely by choice, not because he had to and not because the victim’s family asked for it. Going forward, he can choose us, our community, to build and grow, instead of more violence and cruelty. The Promise of Justice Initiative will continue to fight for the others on death row, we will continue to challenge the government to show up for this state instead of harm this state,” Kennedy concluded.
The Promise of Justice Initiative remains committed to ending the death penalty and fighting executions in Louisiana using both legal and community advocacy strategies. PJI will continue to lead with a transformative approach that is community-led, restorative, and racially just. PJI will continue this work until the death penalty is abolished in Louisiana.
Learn more at www.promiseofjustice.org/deathpenalty.
Litigation Background
The preliminary injunction that temporarily prevented the State from carrying out the execution of Jessie Hoffman marked the first time an execution by “nitrogen hypoxia” had been successfully challenged in federal court on constitutional grounds. Chief District Judge Shelly Dick found that Mr. Hoffman would likely “prove that nitrogen hypoxia poses a substantial risk of conscious terror and psychological pain” that amounts to cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the 8th Amendment. Nitrogen gassing has been used four other times, all in Alabama, and resulted in gruesome, drawn-out deaths for those killed.
The previous federal case, Hoffman v. Jindal (Civil Action 12-796-SDD-EWD), contributed to the pause in executions from 2012 until its dismissal in 2022. Louisiana officials had struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs due to the unwillingness of pharmaceutical companies to supply the drugs for the purpose of ending a life. After the special legislative session on crime in early 2024, the state adopted three methods of execution: lethal injection, nitrogen gassing, and the electric chair. The special session bill adding nitrogen gassing as a form of execution encountered strong resistance from religious leaders and advocacy groups.