Latest news with #U.S.5thCircuitCourtofAppeals
Boston Globe
21-04-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Supreme Court appears likely to uphold Obamacare's preventive care coverage mandate
The plaintiffs argued that requirements to cover those medications and services are unconstitutional because a volunteer board of medical experts that recommended them should have been Senate- approved. The challengers have also raised religious and procedural objections. Advertisement The Trump administration defended the mandate before the court, though President Donald Trump has been a critic of the law. The Justice Department said board members don't need Senate approval because they can be removed by the health and human services secretary. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A majority of the justices seemed inclined to side with the government. Kavanaugh said he didn't see indications in the law that the board was designed to have the kind of power that would require Senate approval, and Barrett questioned the plaintiff's apparently 'maximalist' interpretation of the board's power. A ruling is expected by the end of June. Some justices suggested they could send the case back to the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, leaving unanswered questions about which medications and services remain covered. Advertisement The case came before the court after the appeals court struck down some preventive care coverage requirements. It sided with Christian employers and Texas residents who argued they can't be forced to provide full insurance coverage for things like medication to prevent HIV and some cancer screenings. They were represented by well-known conservative attorney Jonathan Mitchell, who represented Trump before the high court in a dispute about whether he could appear on the 2024 ballot. Not all preventive care was threatened by the ruling. A 2023 analysis prepared by the nonprofit KFF found that some screenings, including mammography and cervical cancer screening, would still be covered without out-of-pocket costs. The appeals court found that coverage requirements were unconstitutional because they came from a body — the United States Preventive Services Task Force — whose members were not nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Fox News
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Supreme Court blocks new deportations of Venezuelans in Texas under 18th century Alien Enemies Act
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling early Saturday morning blocking, at least for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th century wartime law. The justices instructed the Trump administration not to remove Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center "until further order of this court." Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the majority opinion. The court's ruling comes after an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union arguing that federal immigration authorities appeared to be working to resume the removal of migrants from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Two federal judges earlier declined to step in and the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has not made any decision. The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three previous times in U.S. history, with the most recent being during World War II to hold Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration claims the act gave them the authority to swiftly remove immigrants they accuse of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, regardless of their immigration status.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Yahoo
Louisiana conducts its first nitrogen gas execution, ending 15-year death penalty hiatus
Jessie Hoffman, 46, was executed Tuesday, March 18, 2025, for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of Mary 'Molly' Elliot, 28, in St. Tammany Parish. He's the first person put to death through nitrogen hypoxia, and the first death sentenced carried out in Louisiana in 15 years. (Photo courtesy Hoffman's defense team) Lawyers for Jessie Hoffman confirmed Tuesday evening he was put to death at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, being the first person in the state executed using nitrogen gas. It also marked the first time Louisiana has carried out the death penalty in 15 years, citing its inability to obtain the drugs necessary for lethal injection. With no foreseeable source for that method, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and the GOP-dominated state legislature approved nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative. Alabama is the only other state to have used the technique, having put four condemned men to death since adopting the method in February 2024. 'It went flawless. There was nothing that happened incorrectly,' Gary Westcott, secretary of Louisiana's Department of Public Safety and Corrections, told reporters after Hoffman's execution, according to WAFB-TV. Hoffman, 46, was executed for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of 28-year-old Mary 'Molly' Elliot. She had just gotten married a week before she was killed. Investigators said Hoffman abducted Elliot at a downtown New Orleans parking lot where he was a valet and where she parked daily for her job at an advertising agency. She was taken to rural St. Tammany Parish, where she was assaulted and fatally shot the day before Thanksgiving. A hunter found her nude body the next day at a remote boat launch near the Pearl River. If you commit heinous acts of violence in this State, it will cost you your life. – Gov. Jeff Landry Lawyers for Hoffman, seeking a last-minute reprieve from his death sentence being carried out, argued nitrogen hypoxia amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, prohibited under the 8th Amendment. Hoffman instead sought death by firing squad or lethal injection, acknowledging his responsibility for Elliot's violent death. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick of Louisiana's Middle District Court, temporarily blocked Hoffman's execution date to allow that argument to proceed. Attorney General Liz Murrill challenged that order. Last week, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals removed the injunction from Dick, a federal court appointee of former President Barack Obama. In a 5-4 decision late Tuesday afternoon, the Supreme Court refused to stop Hoffman's execution. Cecelia Koppel, one of Hoffman's attorneys and director of the Center for Social Justice at Loyola University College of Law, issued a statement on Hoffman's death shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday. 'Tonight, the State of Louisiana carried out the senseless execution of Jessie Hoffman,' Koppell said. 'He was a father, a husband, and a man who showed extraordinary capacity for redemption. Jessie no longer bore any resemblance to the 18-year old who killed Molly Elliot.' Koppel had unsuccessfully challenged Louisiana's move to nitrogen hypoxia, arguing the method was an illegal affront to Hoffman's Buddhist faith. Justice Neil Gorsuch, an appointee of President Donald Trump, joined the court's three liberal jurists and wrote the dissenting opinion, calling out the 5th Circuit's failure to address Hoffman's religious concerns. The expedited nature of Louisiana's nitrogen hypoxia protocols was also a point of contention for Koppel. Although Landry and lawmakers approved the method last year, the governor didn't release the legally required execution protocol until Feb. 10. Those details remained under seal until March 5, giving Hoffman's team less than two weeks to challenge the pending execution. '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,' Koppel said. Landry's office also issued a statement from him after Hoffman's execution. It stressed how Elliot's 'family and friends have been forced to relive the tragedy through countless legal proceedings.' 'In Louisiana, we will always prioritize victims over criminals, law and order over lawlessness, and justice over the status quo,' Landry said. 'If you commit heinous acts of violence in this State, it will cost you your life. Plain and simple.' Read the governor's full statement below. State corrections officials allowed only two journalists to witness the execution. According to The Advocate, Hoffman was fastened to a gurney and inhaled nitrogen gas for 19 minutes. State officials said he displayed 'convulsive activity' as he died, and he was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. Hoffman declined to make a final statement before his death and refused a last meal, according to the report. Ilona Hoffman, the executed man's wife, issued a statement that said he 'was not defined by his worst moment' and that the 'system' had failed him as a child. 'This execution was not justice. It was revenge,' Ilona Hoffman said. 'True justice recognizes growth, humanity, and redemption. Louisiana chose to ignore that.' The Promise of Justice Initiative, which opposes the death penalty, was among the groups in Hoffman's corner. Its senior staff attorney, Samantha Pourciau, took critical aim at the Landry administration in a statement after his death. '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,' Pourciau said in part. '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.' There are 55 more people on death row in Louisiana, and Murrill has said the state intends to execute four people this year. The full statement from Gov. Jeff Landry on Jessie Hoffman's execution: '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. 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.'
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
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Yahoo
'I miss her so much': Remembering Molly Elliott, killed by Louisiana Death Row inmate
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. 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. They cherished 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." 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 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 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 responsibility 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." 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 This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Remembering Molly Elliott, killed by Louisiana Death Row inmate
