Latest news with #MollyElliott
USA Today
19-03-2025
- USA Today
Louisiana executes inmate with nitrogen gas method after narrow Supreme Court decision
Louisiana executes inmate with nitrogen gas method after narrow Supreme Court decision Show Caption Hide Caption Firing squad executes Brad Keith Sigmon in South Carolina A firing squad in South Carolina executed Brad Keith Sigmon for the beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend's parents in 2001. Death row inmate Jessie Hoffman was convicted of the brutal rape and murder of 28-year-old Molly Elliott in 1996. He had kidnapped her in New Orleans after she got off work. Hoffman has been arguing that he shouldn't be executed by nitrogen gas because it violates his religious freedoms. Molly Elliott's husband told USA TODAY that he was in favor of Hoffman's execution if it wasn't going to be further delayed but said it wouldn't bring closure. Louisiana on Tuesday executed a death row inmate using nitrogen gas for the first time in state history and only the fifth time in U.S. history. Death row inmate Jessie Hoffman's execution is the first in Louisiana in 15 years after the state struggled to obtain drugs for lethal injections. Hoffman was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. after a "flawless" execution, according to Gary Westcott, secretary of the the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Hoffman, who was convicted of the brutal rape and murder of 28-year-old Molly Elliott in 1996, had been arguing that he shouldn't be executed by nitrogen gas, a controversial and largely untried method, partly because it he said it violated his religious freedom by preventing him from practicing his Buddhist meditative breathing. Last week, a federal judge temporarily halted Hoffman's execution, citing possible "pain and torture" in violation of his constitutional rights. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ruling on Friday. Hoffman's attorneys appealed and on Tuesday shortly before the execution, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop it in a narrow decision. Until Tuesday, only one state, Alabama, had used nitrogen gas to put inmates to death. The state made history last year with its first such execution, and has conducted three others using nitrogen gas since. "Tonight, justice was served for Molly Elliot and for the state of Louisiana," Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a news conference after Hoffman's execution. "Now he faces his ultimate judgment. Judgment before God." Hoffman's attorney, Cecelia Kappel, said in a statement that the execution was "senseless" and that "we are better than this." "He was a father, a husband, and a man who showed extraordinary capacity for redemption," Kappel said. "Jessie no longer bore any resemblance to the 18-year old who killed Molly Elliott." Here's what to know about Hoffman's execution, including more about the close Supreme Court decision and how Elliott's family feels about the execution 29 years after losing the bright young woman. Witnesses describe execution Hoffman declined a last meal and did not say any last words before the nitrogen gas began to flow at about 6:21 p.m., according to execution witnesses who spoke at a news conference. The gas flowed for about 19 minutes, five minutes after state officials say he flatlined. Hoffman was strapped to a gurney, and all but his head and forearms were covered by a thick blanket, they said. "He did move. He did shake very briefly," said Seth Smith, chief of operations for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. "Around 6:23 he did have some convulsive activity ... After that, I personally didn't see nothing that I would say is consistent with pain. He, in essence, was clinically dead very quickly." One of two media witnesses, Gina Swanson with WDSU-TV, said that she saw Hoffman twitch, clench his fists and his body jerk but said that "it was a clinical thing." "There was nothing really off-putting that made me feel like, 'Well, that didn't go right,'" she said. What did Jessie Hoffman do? Molly Elliott left work at her advertising firm in the French Quarter of New Orleans around 5 p.m. on Nov. 27, 1996, and walked to the Sheraton hotel garage where she parked her car. She was supposed to meet her husband at his office at 6 p.m. so they could go out to dinner together, police told reporters at the time. Hoffman, who was just 18 years old and had worked at the garage for about two weeks, kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her to withdraw about $200 from an ATM, prosecutors said. Even if Hoffman had let her go at that point, prosecutors said it would have been "the most horrific night of her life." "The ATM video tape shows the terror on Ms. Elliott's face as she withdrew money from her account, and Hoffman can be seen standing next to his victim," prosecutors said in court records. After getting the cash, Hoffman forced Elliott to drive to a remote area of St. Tammany Parish as she begged him not to hurt her, prosecutors said, citing Hoffman's eventual confession to the crime. Hoffman then raped Elliott and forced her to get out of the car and walk down a dirt path in an area used as a dump, prosecutors said. "Her death march ultimately ended at a small, makeshift dock at the end of this path, where she was forced to kneel and shot in the head, execution style," they said. "Ms. Elliott likely survived for a few minutes after being shot, but she was left on the dock, completely nude on a cold November evening, to die." Her husband identified her body after it was found on Thanksgiving Day, prosecutors said. Hoffman's attorney, Cecelia Kappel, told USA TODAY that he acknowledged the crime and was deeply remorseful. More about the nitrogen gas method, court decisions Last week, Chief District Judge Shelly Dick temporarily blocked Hoffman's execution, saying that it could cause him "pain and terror" and that he showed a "substantial likelihood' of proving that nitrogen gas executions violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Dick cited accounts from all four of the Alabama executions that "describe suffering, including conscious terror for several minutes, shaking, gasping, and other evidence of distress." The witnesses observed the inmates' bodies "writhing" under their restraints, "vigorous convulsing and shaking for four minutes," heaving, spitting, and a "conscious struggling for life." Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has defended the method as 'constitutional and effective," and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has argued in court records that witness accounts from members of the news media are unreliable. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Dick's ruling on Friday. The matter headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which allowed the execution to move forward in a 5-4 decision. The court's three liberal members and Justice Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted Hoffman's request for a stay of execution. Gorsuch said the lower courts failed to adequately review Hoffman's claim that the method would interfere with his meditative breathing as he dies, violating his right to practice his Buddhist religion. 'No one has questioned the sincerity of Mr. Hoffman's religious beliefs,' Gorsuch wrote. Yet the district court rejected Hoffman's argument anyway, based on its own finding about the kind of breathing his faith requires, Gorsuch continued. But courts, he said, cannot decide how a religion should be followed. Gorsuch said he would have paused the execution and ordered the appeals court to review Hoffman's religious liberty claim. What does Molly Elliott's family say? Molly Elliott's husband, Andy Elliott, told USA TODAY on Tuesday that Hoffman's execution was "bittersweet news." "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," he said. He added that he hopes Hoffman's case can help "bring about meaningful change" to the death penalty because "a multi-decade long wait is not only difficult for all involved, but also it seriously blunts the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent on crime.""On the one hand, I am satisfied that justice has finally been served so we can all try to move on with our lives," he said. "On the other, if the death penalty is going to exist, the process must be resolved within a reasonable period of time."In a previous statement to USA TODAY, he said that his wife "was a cherished person who missed out on motherhood, a promising and successful career, and a life in the country on the property we bought together." "Hers was a life that was so full of hope and promise for a beautiful future," he said. "The loss of Molly is a scar we will forever carry, and it will never heal." 'I miss her so much': Remembering Molly Elliott, killed by Louisiana Death Row inmate More executions to come in U.S. Three other executions, all by lethal injection, also are scheduled this week in Arizona, Oklahoma and Florida. At least 11 more executions are scheduled for the rest of the year but that number is expected to go up as states issue more death warrants. States have been looking to expand its execution methods as lethal injection drugs have become harder to obtain. Alabama became the first state in the nation to use the nitrogen gas method last year. It's also legal in Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma. And on Tuesday, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill to use the method in her state. Ohio and Nebraska have reintroduced similar legislation this year. And in South Carolina, Brad Keith Sigmon was executed by firing squad earlier this month, the first such execution in the U.S. since 2010 and only the fourth since 1977. Contributing: Maureen Groppe and N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY
USA Today
18-03-2025
- USA Today
Is nitrogen execution too 'gruesome' and 'cruel?' Louisiana is about to find out
Is nitrogen execution too 'gruesome' and 'cruel?' Louisiana is about to find out A court in Louisiana ruled Jessie Hoffman can be put to death Tuesday using nitrogen hypoxia - deprivation of oxygen causing suffocation. Show Caption Hide Caption Nitrogen hypoxia: What to know about the problematic execution method Alabama plans to execute inmate Kenneth Smith by nitrogen hypoxia. Here's what we know about the execution method. Jessie Hoffman, 46, is condemned to die Tuesday for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 28-year-old accounting executive Molly Elliott in 1996. While some states have passed or are considering legislation to allow nitrogen gas executions, it is uncertain how widely the method will be used. Public support for the death penalty is declining, and several states with capital punishment have not carried out executions in years. After Alabama carried out the country's first known execution by nitrogen gas last year, the state's attorney general delivered a message to other states: "Alabama has done it, and now so can you." So far, that hasn't happened. But Louisiana is set to perform its first execution by nitrogen gas Tuesday, after a volley of court decisions blocked and then paved the way for the execution, arguing by turns the method was cruel or humane. A federal judge said the method could violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, citing witness accounts of the Alabama executions. But the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled it could go forward. Condemned to die Tuesday is Jessie Hoffman, 46, for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 28-year-old accounting executive Molly Elliott in 1996. Hoffman's attorney has pledged to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has described nitrogen hypoxia − oxygen deprivation causing suffocation − as "textbook," "humane and effective." Alabama has executed four prisoners using this controversial method and lawmakers in several other states have proposed legislation that would add nitrogen gas to their roster of ways to kill their inmates as official struggle to obtain drugs used for the country's primary method of execution, lethal injection. Capital punishment experts say that while a handful of the 27 states that have the death penalty may actually adopt this method, it's unlikely to be widely used and the outcome of the Louisiana case might inform how other states may handle future legal challenges. "I think the decision of these few states to introduce new methods of execution, including nitrogen gas, are out of line with what we've seen as a general trend to the country," said Megan Byrne, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project. Texas, Louisiana both halted executions: What's going on? Nitrogen hypoxia faces multiple legal challenges The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which rescinded Hoffman's temporary reprieve, is arguably the most conservative appeals court in the nation and has become a testing ground for key causes. The U.S. Supreme Court has previously tried to rein in the News Orlean-based court but also allowed Alabama and other states to use the nitrogen method. Alabama inmate David Phillip Wilson filed a lawsuit similar to Hoffman's last month claiming the state's plan to execute him using nitrogen gas violates the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, citing the "torturous" execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in January 2024. Witness accounts from his and other Alabama executions "describe suffering, including conscious terror for several minutes, shaking, gasping, and other evidence of distress." Chief District Judge Shelly Dick cited those accounts when delaying Hoffman's execution by nitrogen in Louisiana. Wilson's case is pending. Smith's lawyers did not have the benefit of such evidence when opposing the then-untested method, Byrne said. Mounting evidence gathered from nitrogen gas executions could give challengers more firepower. The Supreme Court's three liberal justices previously criticized the majority's decision to allow Smith's execution, arguing he should have had more time to pursue legal challenges and more needed to be known about the execution method. The Constitution does not guarantee inmates a painless death. But Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University, pointed out judges have deemed certain execution methods cruel and unusual punishment in the past. The high courts in Georgia and Nebraska banned electrocution, and a circuit judge in South Carolina found both the firing squad and electric chair unconstitutional in 2022. But that decision was overturned, and the state carried out its first firing squad execution in modern history earlier this month. The litigation over nitrogen gas might make other states hesitant to use it, Denno said. But she said death penalty states have remained "desperate" to execute their prisoners despite legal challenges and botched executions using many of the country's other methods. "That desperation may outweigh this litigation that's going on here," she said. Pushes for nitrogen gas executions stall Nitrogen hypoxia is already an authorized method of execution in Mississippi and Oklahoma, although it has not been used. Steven Harpe, director of Oklahoma's prison system, visited Alabama to study its nitrogen gas protocol and told the Associated Press he would "absolutely" want to use the method if possible, but the governor later told the outlet he had no plans to change the state's process. A bill approving the use of the method is currently awaiting Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signature. When asked if Sanders plans to sign the bill, spokesperson Sam Dubke told USA TODAY the governor "reviews legislation as it is introduced." Lawmakers in Ohio and Nebraska have reintroduced similar bills this year while another bill sponsored by Kansas' attorney general died in committee last year. It's possible some of these bills may become law, particularly in Arkansas, but just because a state has an execution method on the books doesn't mean officials will use it, said Austin Sarat, a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College. "The thing that we need to remember is that nitrogen hypoxia is authorized, but it's not the only method of execution available," he said. Nitrogen executions could face long term issues States like Louisiana turned to nitrogen hypoxia or other alternative methods like the firing squad after struggling to procure drugs for lethal injection, but if those drugs were readily available, prison officials may not need to use nitrogen gas. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January directing the attorney general to help states secure the lethal drugs. Experts said it's not clear what the federal government could do because the primary issue is that pharmaceutical companies do not want to publicly provide drugs for lethal injections. Though it does not yet appear to be an issue, states could eventually run into the same problem securing gas for executions. Multiple manufacturers of medical-grade nitrogen gas told The Guardian last year they would not allow their product to be used in capital punishment. "Nitrogen gas is easier to get than lethal injection drugs, but that's only right now," Denno said. Public support for the death penalty lags Even as Trump has pledged to revive the death penalty, experts said the country is generally moving away from support for capital punishment. Several states that have the death penalty have not executed anyone in years, and a 2024 Gallup poll found support for the death penalty in the U.S. has fallen to 53%, a level not seen since the early 1970s. Several experts and human rights organizations including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International criticized Smith's execution as particularly inhumane. Hoffman's execution has drawn protests from Jews Against Gassing Coalition, which says the method bears painful similarities to the gas chambers used during the Holocaust, CNN reported. Sarat said nitrogen gas isn't likely to become the "safe, reliable and humane" execution method the country has long been searching for. "Is it likely now to fix the problems of executions? I don't think so," he said. "So the story of a broken system, I think, is likely to continue to include methods of execution that will prove to be unreliable or will prove to be more gruesome than Americans can stomach." Contributing: Maureen Groppe and Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY
USA Today
17-03-2025
- USA Today
'I miss her so much': Remembering Molly Elliott, killed by Louisiana Death Row inmate
'I miss her so much': Remembering Molly Elliott, killed by Louisiana Death Row inmate Elliott's mother and husband remember the 28-year-old advertising executive as a loving woman who surrounded herself with animals and lit up every room. Her killer is set to be executed in Louisiana. Show Caption Hide Caption Firing squad executes Brad Keith Sigmon in South Carolina A firing squad in South Carolina executed Brad Keith Sigmon for the beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend's parents in 2001. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and Molly Elliott was getting ready to go out on a date night with her husband. The 28-year-old advertising executive left her office in the French Quarter in New Orleans and headed to her car. But instead of driving to dinner, a parking lot attendant kidnapped Elliott, raped her and dumped her nude body along the East Pearl River near the Mississippi-Louisiana state line. A duck hunter found her at 7:45 a.m. the next day on Thanksgiving, 1996. The murder shocked Elliott's family and friends, who described her as a vivacious, warm, loving woman. "Molly was a cherished person who missed out on motherhood, a promising and successful career, and a life in the country on the property we bought together," her husband, Andy Elliott, told USA TODAY in a statement on Thursday. "Hers was a life that was so full of hope and promise for a beautiful future. The loss of Molly is a scar we will forever carry, and it will never heal." Now nearly 30 years later, Elliott's killer is set to become the first inmate in Louisiana history – and only the fifth in the U.S. – to be executed by the controversial nitrogen gas method. Jessie Hoffman is scheduled to die on Tuesday despite a judge's order last week temporarily halting the execution in a ruling that was overturned by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. The matter will head to the U.S. Supreme Court by Monday, Hoffman's attorney vowed. As Hoffman's death approaches, USA TODAY is looking back at who Elliott was and what happened her. Who was Molly Elliott? Elliott, whose full name was Mary Margaret Murphy Elliott, grew up in Phoenix and landed a top position at a prestigious Los Angeles advertising agency before she met her husband. The couple moved just north of New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana, in 1994, according to an archived story in the Times-Picayune newspaper. As a baby, her mother told jurors that her daughter "was this wonderful, baldheaded bundle of energy and laughter and joy." When she grew up, she had "fabulous little freckles on her face and the smile that would just absolutely break your heart," said Roxie Stouffer of Phoenix, according to court records. "When Molly walked into a room and smiled, the whole room just lights up," Stouffer said. "It's just the most amazing thing to see.' Elliott's husband, Andy Elliott, told jurors that his wife "was a very intelligent person, a very warm person, a very trusting person." 'I never knew anybody who was a better person," he said. "She was the kind of person that usually looked for the good in any person and would generally opt to trust someone rather than not trust them." He said that she was quick with a laugh and that the couple used to love playing jokes on each other and enjoying their sprawling country home surrounded by land and animals. "She was a very loving person. I think that's why we had all the animals," he said, according to court records. "It was just an outlet for us to have more things to love and be around us." In a 2013 Facebook post, Stouffer said she was thinking about her girl: "Wishing my sweet daughter Molly were here to celebrate her 45th birthday. I miss her so much." What happened to Molly Elliott? Elliott left work at Peter A. Mayer Advertising Inc., around 5 p.m. on Nov. 27, 1996, and walked to the Sheraton hotel garage where she parked her car. She was supposed to meet her husband at his office at 5 p.m. so they could go out to dinner together, police told reporters at the time. Hoffman, who was just 18 years and had worked at the garage for about two weeks, kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her to withdraw about $200 from an ATM, prosecutors said. Even if Hoffman had let her go at that point, prosecutors said it would have been "the most horrific night of her life." "The ATM video tape shows the terror on Ms. Elliott's face as she withdrew money from her account, and Hoffman can be seen standing next to his victim," prosecutors said in court records. After getting the cash, Hoffman forced Elliott to drive to a remote area of St. Tammany Parish as she begged him not to hurt her, prosecutors said, citing Hoffman's eventual confession to the crime. Hoffman then raped Elliott and forced her to get out of the car and walk down a dirt path in an area used as a dump, prosecutors said. "Her death march ultimately ended at a small, makeshift dock at the end of this path, where she was forced to kneel and shot in the head, execution style," they said. "Ms. Elliott likely survived for a few minutes after being shot, but she was left on the dock, completely nude on a cold November evening, to die." Her husband identified her body after she was found on Thanksgiving Day, prosecutors said. Hoffman contended at the time that he didn't rape Elliott because she had "offered herself to him" and said she was killed after his gun accidentally went off. A jury rejected those arguments, convicting Hoffman of first-degree murder and recommending that he be sentenced to death. Hoffman now acknowledges the crime and is deeply remorseful, his attorney, Cecelia Kappel, told USA TODAY. "He takes full responsible for this very tragic, awful crime," she said. "He is so sorry to the family of Molly Elliott and he wishes to have opportunity before he dies to have a face-to-face conversation where he can apologize in person." Hoffman's execution brings end to 29-year case If Hoffman's execution proceeds on Tuesday, it will come 29 years after Elliott's murder. In his statement to USA TODAY, Andy Elliott said that after so much time has passed, he has "become indifferent to the death penalty vs. life in prison without possibility of parole," but that he's in favor of the execution if it the easiest way to end "the uncertainty that has accompanied these many years." "But, his death will not provide closure," he continued. "Anyone who has experienced a tragedy of this magnitude will recognize the absolute truth − Molly's and my families and friends lost a great human being to a senseless series of crimes, the reasons for which we still don't know. The pain is something we simply have learned to live with." He added that "all we want is finality, so we can stop dreading the reminder of the tragedy every time the subject of his execution re-emerges." "My sincere hope is either to get the execution done or commute his sentence to life in prison without parole, one or the other, as soon as possible," he said. "Then, we can put Molly's brutal death in the past. That's not closure, but it's the best we can hope for." Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY
