Appeals court says Louisiana can carry out the state's first nitrogen gas execution next week
Source: Associated Press
Appeals court says Louisiana can carry out the state’s first nitrogen gas execution next week
By SARA CLINE
Updated 9:53 PM EDT, March 14, 2025
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s first execution using nitrogen gas is set to move forward as planned next week after a federal appeals court on Friday overturned a preliminary injunction granted by a lower judge.
With a March 18 date hastily nearing, attorneys for Jessie Hoffman Jr., the man on death row, told The Associated Press that they plan on immediately taking the legal matter to the U.S. Supreme Court in the hopes of halting the execution.
If the death penalty is carried out, Hoffman., who was convicted of the 1996 murder of Mary Elliott in New Orleans, would be Louisiana’s first execution in 15 years.
Under the state’s new procedure, Hoffman will be strapped to a gurney and forced to breathe pure nitrogen gas through a full-face respirator mask. The protocol is nearly identical to that of Alabama, the first state to use nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution and has carried out four such executions.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-nitrogen-execution-death-penalty-abd0376410c676401e50d8b5ae893b0b