Louisiana has carried out its first execution in more than a decade, killing Jessie Hoffman Jr. with a new nitrogen gas method that unlatches possibilities for the state to somedaycarry out the sentences of 55 people now living on death row.
With Tuesday night’s execution, Louisiana becomes the second state to use the gas method, which has stoked controversy among some experts and horrified death penalty opponents and other advocates. It also demarcates an aggressive new era of punishment in a state already known for high imprisonment rates.
Gov. Jeff Landry says the resumption of executions is necessary to fulfill a "contractual promise" to crime victims. Speaking on the Talk Louisiana radio program Tuesday morning, he took issue — as he has publicly before — with a "focus on the criminal, rather than the victims and the families."
“When death row is empty, we don't have to fill it or put another person on it," he said. "But that's going to depend upon the conduct of individuals, not on society as a whole.”
Media witnesses said Hoffman clenched his fists and twitched as the gas flowed. They said most of his body was obscured by a thick gray blanket, with the exception of his forearms and head. Hoffman's Buddhist spiritual advisor chanted before the execution and following his death.
He declined a final meal at the Louisiana State Penitentiary — the prison commonly referred to as Angola — and did not offer a final statement before the execution. He was pronounced dead by the West Feliciana Parish coroner's office at approximately 6:50 p.m.
“The State of Louisiana took the life of Jessie Hoffman, a man who was deeply loved, who brought light to those around him, and who spent nearly three decades proving that people can change,” Caroline Tillman, one of Hoffman’s attorneys, said in a statement Tuesday evening.
“It took his life not because justice demanded it, but because it was determined to move forward with an execution.”
Hoffman was strapped to a gurney and inhaled pure nitrogen gas through a mask on his face for 19 minutes. Media witnesses to the execution said Hoffman shook for a few minutes, followed by shallowing breathing indicated by the rising and falling of the blanketfor several minutes before he died.
Nitrogen gas executions cause hypoxia, depriving the body of the oxygen needed to maintain its functions.
Attorney General Liz Murrill said after the execution that her office aimed to start reviewing other capital cases, though she could not estimate how many executions might take place in Louisiana this year.
“We're going to start working our way through motions and begin to clear the underbrush and move these cases forward,” she said. “Everybody deserves the justice that the state promised to them.”
Murrill did not personally witness the execution, nor did Landry, per reports.
