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A man scheduled to become the first person executed by nitrogen gas in Louisiana is challenging the method in court, arguing it violates his religious beliefs.
A federal judge will decide whether executing Jessie Hoffman Jr by nitrogen hypoxia violates his constitutional right to practice his religion, which includes Buddhist breathing and meditation exercises that would be impeded by the gas during the capital punishment.
Hoffman’s attorneys argued against the nitrogen gas method, an execution that causes death by forcing a person to breathe pure nitrogen, in a Baton Rouge federal court on Friday. A decision by the US district judge Shelly Dick could could come by the end of the weekend.
Hoffman has proposed using a drug mixture similar to those used in assisted suicides, but state attorneys have said those drugs are unavailable for executions. His attorneys have also argued that the method, which requires an industrial, full-face mask, would worsen Hoffman’s diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder and claustrophobia, and cause severe mental distress.
The move comes amid an intense debate about the role of the death penalty in the US and methods of execution. On Friday, South Carolina used a firing squad to kill a death row prisoner after the condemned man elected that method over the use of drugs.
Hoffman is scheduled for execution on 18 March at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Louisiana adopted its nitrogen hypoxia execution plan just last month, and Hoffman would be the first to die under the new protocol.
Hoffman was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a New Orleans advertising account executive, Mary “Molly” Elliot, in 1996. Her body was found in a wilderness area near the Pearl River in eastern St Tammany parish. Elliot was 28 years old.
The Louisiana attorney general, Liz Murrill, has defended the state’s decision to use nitrogen hypoxia.
“On March 18, 2025, the State of Louisiana will execute Hoffman by nitrogen hypoxia for Molly’s murder. We have and will continue to vigorously defend the State’s obligation to carry out this sentence and bring justice to the family and friends of Molly Elliot,” Murrill said in a statement.
Louisiana scheduled two executions on consecutive days in March, but Christopher Sepulvado, who was set to be executed one day before Hoffman, died of an illness on 23 February.
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Hoffman had previously challenged Louisiana’s lethal injection protocol in 2012, arguing that the method constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Dick dismissed that lawsuit in 2022 because no executions had been scheduled at the time.
The judge reopened the case last month, and said the state’s recently scheduled executions presented “extraordinary circumstances” that required further review.
Louisiana’s last execution happened 15 years ago, when the state used lethal injection to execute Gerald Bordelon.
