The judge blocks the first Nitrogen Gas execution in Louisiana: ‘Pain and terror’

The failure of the main district judge Shelly Dick occurred only one week before Jessie Hoffman was executed by nitrogen gas in the penitentiary of the state of Louisiana on March 18.
Hoffman has demonstrated a “substantial probability” to prove that nitrogen gas executions violate the prohibition of the eighth amendment against cruel and unusual punishment, Dick ruled.
He cited stories of the four Alabama executions that “describe suffering, including conscious terror for several minutes, trembling, panting and other distress tests.”

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked what was going to be The first execution of Louisiana by Nitrogen Gasruling that the method largely proven could cause the inmate “pain and terror.”

The failure of the main district judge Shelly Dick occurred only one week before Jessie Hoffman was executed by nitrogen gas in the penitentiary of the state of Louisiana on March 18 for the kidnapping, rape and murder of the 28 -year -old accounting executive, Molly Elliot, in 1996.

Only four inmates have been executed with nitrogen gas in the history of the United States, All in Alabama Last year and this year. All inmates in that state chose the gas of nitrogen on lethal injection and the electric chair, while Louisiana made the decision to execute Hoffman using nitrogen gas after experiencing difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injection and because the state “does not have an easily available electric chair,” Dick said in his decision.

Hoffman has demonstrated a “substantial probability” to prove that nitrogen gas executions violate the prohibition of the eighth amendment against cruel and unusual punishment, Dick wrote.

He cited stories of the four Alabama executions that “describe suffering, including conscious terror for several minutes, trembling, panting and other distress tests.”

The witnesses observed the bodies of the inmates “twisting” under their restrictions “, convulsing and trembling vigorous for four minutes,” stirring, spitting and a “conscious struggle for life.”

In addition, Dick called Louisiana for initially refusing to make her execution protocols for nitrogen hypoxia available to the public and later only release protocols written the day before she celebrated an audience on the matter.

“The public has an interest in knowing how its government operates. The obfuscation of the protocol by the State is detrimental to the interest of the public,” Dick said in his ruling. “The Constitution of the United States is simply government promises to its citizens. The eighth amendment is the government’s security that no citizen will be punished by cruel and unusual means.”

She said that “it is in the best interest of the public to examine this recently proposed execution method in a fully developed registry.”

“The public has a primary interest in a legal process that allows reflective and well -informed deliberations, particularly when the last fundamental right, the right to life, is placed in the hands of the government,” he said.

A spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General of Louisiana indicated a response from a sentence to the ruling Posted in x: “We do not agree with the decision of the District Court and immediately we will appeal to the fifth circuit.” He did not respond immediately to an additional application for the State’s response on the constitutionality of the method.

Alabama has defended the method as “constitutional and effective.”

What was Jessie Hoffman condemned?

Molly Elliot left the work in her advertising firm in the French neighborhood of New Orleans around 5 PM of November 27, 1996, and walked to the Sheraton hotel garage, where she parked her car. She was supposed to meet her husband in her office at 5 pm so they could go out to dinner together, police told journalists at that time.

Hoffman, who was only 18 years old and had worked in the garage for about two weeks, kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her to remove around $ 200 from an ATM, Prosecutors said. Even if Hoffman had let her go at that time, prosecutors said she would have been “the most horrible night of her life.”

“The ATM video tape shows the terror on Mrs. Elliot’s face as she withdrew money from her account, and you can see Hoffman standing with her victim,” prosecutors said in the judicial records.

After obtaining cash, Hoffman forced Elliot to lead to a remote area of St. Tammany’s parish while begging him not to hurt her, prosecutors said, citing Hoffman’s eventual confession to the crime. Hoffman then raped Elliot and forced her to leave the car and walk on a dirt road in an area used as a garbage dump, prosecutors said.

“His death march finally ended up on a small and improvised dock at the end of this road, where he was forced to kneel and shoot in the head, execution style,” they said. “Mrs. Elliot probably survived for a few minutes after receiving a shot, but left her on the dock, completely naked on a cold November night, to die.”

Her husband identified her body after she was found on Thanksgiving, prosecutors said.

Hoffman said he didn’t violate Elliot because she had “offered herself” and said she was killed after her weapon accidentally shot. A jury rejected those arguments, condemned Hoffman of first -degree murder and recommended that they condemn him to death.

Hoffman’s family has not responded to the requests for comments from USA Today.