Death Row Inmate Seeks To Block First Nitrogen Gas Execution In Louisiana With Lawsuit
Jessie Hoffman, 46, has spent nearly his entire adult life on death row. In 1998, he was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1996 fatal shooting, rape, robbery and kidnapping of 28-year-old advertising executive Mary 'Molly' Elliot. Hoffman was 18 at the time of the incident.
On Monday, Hoffman's legal team filed an application for clemency, asking for his death sentence to be commuted to a life sentence.
Hoffman's legal team claimed in the application that his actions during the crime were 'shaped by trauma-related neurological impairments and the deep psychological wounds of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,' citing instances where he was physically and sexually abused growing up. That evidence was never heard by the jury that sentenced him.
Hoffman has since dedicated himself to self-improvement and changed to become a completely different person since his sentencing, according to the application.
'Driven by a deep sense of remorse and desire to make amends as much as possible, he has worked hard not only to heal himself, but to share his journey and spiritual tools with others for the good of all around him,' Hoffman's legal team wrote.
Hoffman is scheduled to be put to death by nitrogen gas on March 18. In a nitrogen hypoxia execution, an inmate is forced to breathe pure nitrogen, displacing the air in their lungs. The United Nations has stated that execution by nitrogen asphyxiation is 'clearly prohibited under international law.'
On Tuesday, Hoffman challenged the execution method in a lawsuit, arguing that he was deprived of a notice of the protocol that would be used to kill him and that the method would violate his 8th Amendment rights. The 8th Amendment prohibits 'cruel and unusual punishment.'
Hoffman's legal team noted that nitrogen gas is so controversial that veterinarians have banned it for euthanizing animals; they are asking the court to halt their client's execution.
Last year, Kenneth Smith, an Alabama death row inmate who was convicted in 1988,became the first known person in the world to be executed via nitrogen hypoxia. Despite the state's claim that the method would be painless, a number of witnesses said Smith shook, convulsed, writhed and gasped for at least 22 minutes after the execution began, the American Civil Liberty Union reported.
The United Nations expressed concerns leading up to Smith's execution, calling the nitrogen hypoxia method 'a painful and humiliating death.'
Hoffman's legal team previously challenged Louisiana's lethal injection protocol in 2012, saying that method was a cruel and unusual punishment, The Associated Press reported. That was dismissed in 2022 because the state had not planned any executions.
Executions were paused in Louisiana for the past 15 years, the AP noted, citing 'a lack of political interest and inability to secure lethal injection drugs.'
However, Republican Governor Jeff Landry announced earlier this month that the state would move forward with executions, now using nitrogen gas.
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