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Louisiana carries out first execution in 15 years Tuesday night [1]

['Wafb Staff']

Date: 2025-03-19

WEST FELICIANA PARISH, La. (WAFB) - Louisiana carried out its first execution in 15 years on Tuesday evening, March 18, at Angola State Prison in West Feliciana Parish.

Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was put to death using nitrous gas, which replaces oxygen with nitrogen and causes death by suffocation. Officials said the coroner pronounced Hoffman dead at 6:50 p.m.

Jessie Hoffman (Source: Attorney General's Office)

Hoffman was strapped to a gurney and fitted with a respirator mask, similar to those used in industrial work. Pure nitrogen gas was pumped into the mask.

“It was flawless,” said Gary Westcott, the secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Public Safety and Corrections. “It went about as good as we expected it to be. We had no problems.”

Nitrogen gas had previously only been used four times for executions, all of them in the state of Alabama, according to the Associated Press.

The execution faced multiple legal hurdles before ultimately being carried out.

Earlier Tuesday morning, a district court judge in Baton Rouge dissolved a temporary restraining order that blocked the execution. The restraining order was issued until the judge could preside over a hearing regarding whether the method of execution violated Hoffman’s religious freedoms under the Preservation of Religious Freedom Act. Hoffman claimed that nitrogen hypoxia interfered with his religious right as a Buddhist to do “meditative breathing” as he was put to death.

Louisiana carried out its first execution in 15 years on Tuesday evening, March 18, at Angola State Prison in West Feliciana Parish.

The district court judge sided with the Louisiana Department of Corrections.

Tuesday afternoon, Louisiana’s state Supreme Court denied an appeal, while the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to block the execution.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill defended the state’s decision to use nitrogen hypoxia, arguing that it was adopted after difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections.

Officials said that Hoffman was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Mary “Molly” Elliot in St. Tammany Parish. At the time of the murder, Hoffman was 18, while Elliot was 28.

“This is the law in Louisiana and we carried out the law of Louisiana,” Murrill said. “Molly Elliott’s immediate family members did not oppose this moving forward. They were grateful to have finality. What was frustrating to them was that it took 30 years.”

According to court documents, Hoffman admitted to kidnapping Elliot from a parking garage in New Orleans. Officials said he forced the victim to drive him to an ATM to withdraw money and then take him to St. Tammany Parish. Hoffman then raped her and shot her execution style on a dock near the Middle Pearl River, according to case details shared by the Governor’s Office.

Authorities said that a duck hunter discovered Elliot’s body by the Middle Pearl River on Thanksgiving Day in 1996. They said that she was identified by her husband.

Hoffman was found guilty of first-degree murder and rape by a jury. The jury also unanimously recommended a sentence of death, finding the offense was committed in an “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner.”

As of Tuesday, March 18, Louisiana has more than 60 inmates on death row. The state has carried 29 executions since 1976, including Tuesday’s execution of Hoffman.

Louisiana carried out its first execution in 15 years on Tuesday evening, March 18, at Angola State Prison in West Feliciana Parish.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry released the following statement following Tuesday’s execution:

On November 27, 1996, the day before Thanksgiving, Mary “Molly” Elliot left work to retrieve her car at the Sheraton parking garage in downtown New Orleans. Instead of the 28-year-old advertising executive enjoying a planned date with her husband, Molly was carjacked, kidnapped, robbed, and raped. She was then marched nude down a dirt path in St. Tammany Parish, where Hoffman made her kneel and shot her execution style on a makeshift dock near the Middle Pearl River. Since that dreadful day, Molly’s family and friends have been forced to relive the tragedy through countless legal proceedings. They have lived with the pain for 28 years, with a promise of justice that went unanswered. Tonight, after 28 years, Justice was served. The State of Louisiana fulfilled the contract it made with the family and friends of Mary “Molly” Elliot. “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,” said Gov. Landry

The following statement was released by Hoffman’s attorney, Cecelia Kappel:

Tonight, the State of Louisiana carried out the senseless execution of Jessie Hoffman. 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. 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. Four Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court believed that Jessie’s important religious freedom claim warranted a stay to allow their thorough review. Governor Landry says he is doing this for the victims, but we have heard directly from victim family members that killing Jessie will not bring them peace. His execution will cause lasting harm to many. Jessie’s son was a newborn at the time of his trial and has been raised by his father from death row. The prison staff who were forced to kill someone they have grown to care for and protect. And the citizens of Louisiana who have said not in my name. We are better than this.

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[1] Url: https://www.wafb.com/2025/03/19/louisiana-carries-out-first-execution-15-years-tuesday-night/

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