Louisiana ended its 15-year hiatus from state killings with the execution of Jessie Hoffman Jr. by nitrogen hypoxia. The state paused executions in 2010 due to legal challenges to its lethal injection protocol and the inability to obtain the necessary drugs to carry out the killings.

The US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling just hours before the state killing, declined to halt Hoffman’s execution. On Friday, a federal appeals court vacated a preliminary injunction blocking the execution granted by a lower judge.

About 50 anti-death penalty advocates protested outside the gates of Angola state prison, holding a vigil for Hoffman as the state began his execution at around 6:00 p.m. local time. According to Louisiana’s new protocol, Hoffman was strapped to a gurney, fitted with a full-face respirator mask and forced to breathe nitrogen gas pumped into the mask until his heart stopped.

His attorney Caroline Tillman confirmed shortly before 7:00 p.m. that the execution had been completed. “Tonight, 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,” she said.

In March 2024, the Louisiana Legislature passed a bill authorizing the use of nitrogen gas and electrocution as alternative execution methods. On February 10, 2025, Governor Jeff Landry, a Republican, announced that the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections had implemented the new nitrogen gas protocol. Details of the state’s protocol have been released in redacted form only.

Hoffman, now 46, was 18 when he carried out the abduction, rape and murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive. He was tried and sentenced to death for the crime, for which he claimed responsibility and expressed remorse. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that it is unconstitutional to impose the death penalty on those who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes. Hoffman was just 88 days past his 18th birthday.

The execution was carried out at the infamous Angola State Penitentiary. The prison—known as “Alcatraz of the South” and “The Farm”—was built on land originally occupied by slave plantations. It began operating as a state prison in 1901 and is the largest maximum security prison in the US, spanning 18,000 acres and housing about 6,300 prisoners.

Over 100 people had gathered near the Governor’s Mansion in Baton Rouge on Sunday to protest the execution. In a letter dated Monday, Kate Murphy, Molly Elliott’s sister-in-law, sent a last-minute plea to Louisiana government officials asking them to grant Hoffman a reprieve and parole hearing to give her the opportunity to meet with him as part of her healing process. She asked that Hoffman’s sentence be commuted to life in prison, saying, “Executing Jessie Hoffman is not justice in my name, it is the opposite.” Governor Landry ignored her plea.

While there is no “humane” way for the state to execute a human being, the American Veterinary Association has ruled that nitrogen gas should not be used to euthanize dogs and cats unless they have already been rendered unconscious through sedation. In fact, Louisiana state law outlaws gassing as a method of euthanasia of these animals.

Lee Capone, a Louisiana veterinarian for 45 years, was involved in a campaign to ban gassing for mammals in the state. He became convinced that the method was an inhumane euthanasia technique after he saw dogs being killed with gas in the early 1980s. Capone told the Guardian:

A large number of dogs were put into a concrete bunker and gassed. It was clear from their bodies, which had eyes wide open and dilated, saliva round the mouth, signs of vomiting and diarrhea, that they had been frightened and scared, and had suffered.

The Louisiana coalition Jews Against Gassing opposes nitrogen gas executions, saying the method “echoes” the Nazis’ gassing of millions of Jews and others during the Holocaust. Such objections, however, have not deterred a growing number of states to adopt the method. At present, five US states authorize execution by nitrogen suffocation, including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Ohio and Nebraska have also considered legislation to allow the method.

Like so many of those put to death in America, Hoffman’s childhood was marked by abuse, neglect and trauma. He was initially abandoned by his mother shortly after birth. His mother inflicted extreme punishments on her children, including burning their hands over a stove burner and beating them with extension cords and belts. She would reportedly force Hoffman and his brothers to engage in sexual acts with her while she was intoxicated.

Angola prison, the scene of Hoffman’s execution, has seen 29 executions since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976: 20 by electrocution, eight by lethal injection and now one by nitrogen gas. There are 62 people on Louisiana’s death row, including one woman, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Angola has the highest percentage of prisoners in the country serving life without parole; over 90 percent of inmates sent to Angola will die on the premises. Angola is run as a working farm, with inmates involved in agricultural labor. It also houses a license plate plant and a mattress factory. Some prisoners earn wages as low as two cents an hour.

Innocence Project New Orleans, even though it did not represent Hoffman, noted:

Since 1976, 12 people have been exonerated from Louisiana’s death row—nearly half as many as have been executed in that time. In the same period, more than 80% of death sentences have been reversed. Even so, surely the state has executed people who deserved to live. The more our government does to “expedite” the process of execution, the more it is inevitable that we will execute not just someone who doesn’t deserve to be executed for the crime they committed, but someone who didn’t commit the crime at all.

Hoffman was the fifth person put to death by nitrogen hypoxia since January 2024. The previous four took place in Alabama, the first state to adopt the barbaric and torturous method.

• Kenneth Eugene Smith, executed January 25, 2024: The Montgomery Advertiser’s witness wrote that Smith “took deep breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his head. … Smith clenched his fists, his legs shook under the tightly tucked-in white sheet that covered him from his neck down. He seemed to be gasping for air. The gurney shook several times during this time.”
• Alan Eugene Miller, September 26, 2024: AL.com reported that after the gas began flowing “Miller then took deep breaths and lifted his head off the gurney several times. … He struggled against the restraints on the gurney, shaking and trembling for about two minutes. Then, Miller gasped off and on for about six minutes.”
• Carey Dale Grayson, executed November 21, 2024: Nitrogen gas was pumped into Grayson’s lungs from a respirator, causing him to shake violently, pull at his restraints and clench his fists. The Associated Press reported he gasped for air more than a dozen times and his legs lifted off the gurney and into the air at one point. Grayson only lost consciousness around six minutes after the gas started flowing.
• Demetrius Frazier, executed February 6, 2025: Witnesses reported that Frazier showed signs of distress during the execution. The nitrogen gas flowed for about 15 minutes and witnesses reported that Frazier grimaced and quivered as the gas was pumped in. Prison officials claimed these movements were “involuntary reactions.”

There are three more executions scheduled this week: Aaron Gunches in Arizona on Wednesday, March 19; Wendell Grissom in Oklahoma and Edward Thomas James in Florida, both on Thursday, March 20.