Louisiana man asks for last-minute court ruling to halt nitrogen gas execution

This undated photo shows Louisiana death row inmate Jessie Hoffman Jr., who was convicted in the 1996 murder of Mary "Molly" Elliott. (Caroline Tillman/Federal Public Defender's Office For the Middle and Western Districts of Louisiana via AP)

BATON ROUGE, La. — Hours before a Louisiana man is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday, his attorneys are hoping for a last-minute court ruling to halt the state’s first execution by nitrogen gas.

Louisiana plans to use the new method to put Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, to death Tuesday evening in the state’s first execution in 15 years. Nitrogen gas has been used just four other times to execute a person in the United States -- all in Alabama, the only other state with a protocol for the method.

Hoffman’s lawyers say the method is unconstitutional, violating the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. They also say that it infringes on Hoffman’s freedom to practice religion, specifically his Buddhist breathing and meditation in the moments leading up to his death.

Louisiana officials maintain that the method is painless and say it is past time for the state to deliver justice promised to victims' families after a decade and a half hiatus. Attorney General Liz Murrill says that she expects at least four people on Louisiana’s death row to be executed this year.

After court battles earlier this month, attorneys for Hoffman are turning to the United States Supreme Court to halt the execution. However, the court declined to intervene in the nation’s first nitrogen hypoxia execution last year.

On Monday, Hoffman’s attorneys filed a slew of additional challenges in state and federal courts as a last-ditch effort to stop the execution. A state judge will consider one of the new challenges Tuesday morning. But with the hearing taking place just hours before Hoffman is scheduled to be put to death, attorneys will face a race against the clock.

The 19th Judicial District Court judge issued a temporary restraining order -- preventing the state from executing Hoffman -- pending a morning hearing. Attorneys for Hoffman and the state say their understanding is that the restraining order, as it stands, was to expire at 9:30 a.m. However the execution is scheduled for the evening, hours after the order expires.

Murrill said that she expects the execution to go forward as planned and that “justice will finally be served.” Hoffman was convicted of the 1996 murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive, in New Orleans.

Under Louisiana protocol, which is nearly identical to Alabama’s, Hoffman will be strapped to a gurney and have a full-face respirator mask -- similar to what is used by painters and sandblasters -- fitted tightly on him. Pure nitrogen gas will then be pumped into the mask, forcing him to breathe it in and depriving him of the oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions.

The nitrogen gas will be administered for at least 15 minutes or five minutes after his heart rate reaches a flatline indication on the EKG, whichever is longer.

Each inmate put to death using nitrogen in Alabama has appeared to shake and gasp to varying degrees during their executions, according to media witnesses, including a reporter form The Associated Press. The reactions are involuntary movements associated with oxygen deprivation, state officials have said.

Currently, four states -- Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma -- specifically authorize execution by nitrogen hypoxia, according to records compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Alabama first used the lethal gas to put Kenneth Eugene Smith to death last year, marking the first time a new method had been used in the U.S. since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.

In an effort to resume executions, Louisiana’s GOP-dominated Legislature expanded the state’s approved death penalty methods last year to include nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution. Lethal injection was already in place.

Over recent decades, the number of executions nationally has declined sharply amid legal battles, a shortage of lethal injection drugs and waning public support for capital punishment. That has led a majority of states to either abolish or pause carrying out the death penalty.

Hoffman is scheduled to be the seventh death row execution in the country this year.

By Sara Cline