Louisiana ended its 15-year death penalty hiatus Tuesday when it executed convicted rapist and murderer Jessie Hoffman with nitrogen gas.
Hoffman, 46, was put to death at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for the 1996 killing of 28-year-old Mary “Molly” Elliot, and his death marks the first time nitrogen gas was used as an execution method in the Bayou State, according to a Tuesday report.
“It went flawless,” Secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Public Safety Gary Westcott said. “There was nothing that happened incorrectly.”
Nitrogen hypoxia was approved by the state legislature and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as an alternative execution method after no executions were performed in the state for over a decade due to Louisiana’s inability to procure the drugs necessary to create a lethal injection, the report noted.
DEATH PENALTY: Convicted rapist-murderer Jessie Hoffman, 46, put to death by nitrogen hypoxia in Louisiana’s first state execution since 2010 https://t.co/aYAYlmzKyR pic.twitter.com/r5c5BHcJTw
— FOX 8 New Orleans (@FOX8NOLA) March 19, 2025
Hoffman’s lawyers sought a last-minute reprieve claiming that the use of nitrogen hypoxia was tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment, and Hoffman sought a firing squad death while taking responsibility for his actions, according to a report.
Nitrogen naturally makes up roughly 78% of the air that people inhale, but pure nitrogen inhaled at the right level will deprive the body of oxygen and kill an individual in what experts believe to be a painless procedure, the Washington Examiner reported before Alabama became the first state to carry out the execution method.
U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick blocked Hoffman’s execution in early March to allow arguments for the reprieve. However, last week, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a removal of the injunction, and the Supreme Court declined to stop the execution, according to the report.
Cecelia Kappel, director of the Center for Social Justice at Loyola University College of Law and Hoffman’s attorney, also challenged the state’s expeditious nature in implementing the nitrogen hypoxia protocol.
“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,” Kappel said.
Prior to his death, Hoffman rejected making a final statement and refused a final meal.
“It is unfortunate that bad people exist, and they do real bad things. When these acts of violence happen, society must not tolerate it. God is as Just as he is Merciful; and my hope is that when Louisiana empties death row, there will never be another victim whose perpetrator must be placed there,” Landry said regarding the execution. “In Louisiana, we will always prioritize victims over criminals, law and order over lawlessness, and justice over the status quo. If you commit heinous acts of violence in this State, it will cost you your life. Plain and simple.”
“This execution was not justice. It was revenge,” said Hoffman’s wife, Ilona Hoffman. “True justice recognizes growth, humanity, and redemption. Louisiana chose to ignore that.”
Hoffman was convicted of the brutal kidnapping, rape, and murder of Elliot after investigators said he abducted the 28-year-old in a New Orleans parking lot where he served as a valet, the report noted.
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The day before Thanksgiving, Hoffman took Elliot to the rural St. Tammany Parish, where he sexually assaulted and shot her before leaving her naked body to be found by a hunter near the Pearl River, investigators said.
At least 55 individuals are on death row in Louisiana, according to the report.