A court ruling has temporarily halted the first nitrogen gas execution in Louisiana, which was scheduled for March 18 at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. According to USA TODAY, Chief District Judge Shelly Dick determined that this largely experimental method could violate the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
The decision came just a week before Jessie Hoffman, convicted of the 1996 kidnapping, rape, and murder of Molly Elliot, was set to face the death penalty. In her ruling, Judge Dick stated that there is a “substantial likelihood” that Hoffman could prove nitrogen gas executions are unconstitutional due to the extreme suffering they may cause.
To support her decision, the judge cited reports on the four executions carried out with this method in Alabama between 2022 and 2023. These accounts describe scenes of “conscious terror lasting several minutes,” convulsions, gasping, and other signs of extreme distress, raising serious concerns about the humanity of this procedure.
