Post-Furman US execution #1614
Louisiana execution #29 since reinstatement
On Tuesday, the 18th of March, 2025, the State of Louisiana carried out its first execution in more than fifteen years when 46-year-old Jessie Dean Hoffman Jr. was put to death at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, West Feliciana Parish. Hoffman had spent more than twenty-six years on death row following his conviction for the 1996 abduction, rape, and murder of an advertising executive in St. Tammany Parish.
His execution was notable as Louisiana became only the second jurisdiction in the United States—following Alabama—to employ nitrogen hypoxia (inhalation of pure nitrogen gas) to carry out a capital sentence. The state had not performed an execution since January 2010, when Gerald Bordelon was put to death by lethal injection after waiving his appeals.
The Crime
On the evening of Wednesday, the 27th of November, 1996—the day preceding Thanksgiving—28-year-old Mary Margaret “Molly” Elliott was walking to her vehicle in a commercial parking garage in downtown New Orleans after leaving her office.
Hoffman, then aged eighteen and employed as a local parking attendant, confronted Mrs Elliott at gunpoint. Forcing his way into her car, he ordered her to drive to several automated teller machines in the metropolitan area, compelling her to withdraw cash. Hoffman then forced Mrs Elliott to drive across Lake Pontchartrain into a secluded, wooded area near the Middle Pearl River in St. Tammany Parish.
Once in the isolated clearing, Hoffman sexually assaulted Mrs Elliott before shooting her in the head with a handgun. He left her body in the marshland and fled in her vehicle. Mrs Elliott’s family reported her missing when she failed to arrive for Thanksgiving celebrations, and her body was discovered by law enforcement several days later. Hoffman was subsequently arrested after being linked to ATM camera footage and property taken from the victim.
Trial and Sentence
Hoffman was indicted in St. Tammany Parish on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated rape.
His trial took place in the 22nd Judicial District Court in Covington during the summer of 1998. The prosecution presented ballistic evidence, ATM photographs, and forensic findings linking Hoffman to the vehicle and the victim. Hoffman’s defence counsel sought to highlight his traumatic upbringing, extreme poverty, and intellectual deficits, arguing against capital punishment.
On the 11th of September, 1998, the jury found Hoffman guilty of first-degree murder committed during the perpetration of aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping. Following the sentencing hearing, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty, and the trial judge formally sentenced him to die. Hoffman was transferred to the death house at Angola in the autumn of 1998.
Appeals and Legal Challenges
Hoffman spent over two decades pursuing post-conviction relief in state and federal courts. His appeals challenged the racial composition of the grand jury, alleged ineffective assistance of counsel at trial, and sought clemency on the grounds of his young age at the time of the offence and subsequent rehabilitation in prison. The Louisiana Supreme Court and federal appellate courts consistently affirmed the conviction.
Like several other states, Louisiana struggled for years to procure the pharmaceutical chemicals required for lethal injection, resulting in a de facto moratorium. In early 2024, the state legislature passed measures expanding authorized execution methods to include nitrogen hypoxia and the electric chair. In February 2025, prison officials scheduled Hoffman’s execution date and formally notified him that nitrogen gas would be used.
Hoffman’s attorneys immediately filed emergency federal motions, arguing that nitrogen gas suffocation constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, citing reports of protracted convulsive movement during Alabama’s use of the method in 2024. Furthermore, Hoffman, who had converted to Buddhism while on death row, argued that the gas mask and resulting asphyxiation would violate his religious freedom by unlawfully obstructing his final meditative breathing practices.
On the 11th of March, 2025, a federal district judge granted a temporary injunction halting the proceedings. However, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated the stay on the 14th of March. A final petition to the Supreme Court of the United States was denied without dissent on the afternoon of the 18th of March, allowing the death warrant to go forward.
The Execution
Hoffman declined a special last meal and refused to make a final oral statement. He was escorted into the execution chamber at Angola shortly before 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the 18th of March, 2025, and strapped to the gurney. A full-face, airtight mask connected to gas lines was fitted over his nose and mouth. Most of his body was covered by a grey prison blanket, leaving his head, arms, and hands visible to official and media witnesses seated behind the glass.
Beside the gurney, Hoffman’s Buddhist spiritual adviser knelt on a mat and chanted quietly throughout the procedure.
At 6:31 p.m., the supply of pure nitrogen was turned on. According to media witnesses, Hoffman remained conscious for approximately two minutes before exhibiting several minutes of involuntary physical tremors, clenching his fists and shaking against the gurney straps. His breathing gradually became shallow, and all observable chest movement ceased around 6:43 p.m.
The flow of gas continued for nineteen minutes in accordance with state protocol. A representative of the West Feliciana Parish coroner’s office examined Hoffman and pronounced life extinct at 6:50 p.m. Central Time. He was 46 years of age.
State corrections officials characterised the procedure as having proceeded smoothly and without technical failure, whereas death penalty abolition groups condemned the method as experimental asphyxiation. Hoffman’s execution was the seventh carried out in the United States in 2025 and marked the opening of a renewed era of capital enforcement in Louisiana.
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