A killer has become the first death row inmate in Louisiana to be executed with nitrogen gas.
Jessie Hoffman Jr, 46, is only the fifth US prisoner to be put to death using the controversial method.
He was 18 when he raped and murdered accounting executive Mary ‘Molly’ Elliott, 28, in New Orleans in 1996.
The state bans nitrogen gas as a form of euthanasia for cats and dogs on the grounds that conscious animals are extremely distressed before they die.
Hoffman’s lawyers had unsuccessfully argued that the nitrogen gas procedure — which deprives a person of oxygen — violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
They also argued the method would infringe on Hoffman’s freedom to practice religion, specifically his Buddhist breathing and meditation in the moments leading up to death.
Louisiana officials maintained the method is painless.
They also said it was past time for the state to deliver justice as promised to victims’ families after a 15-year hiatus —partly due to an inability to secure lethal injection drugs.
Hoffman declined to make a final statement in the execution chamber. He also declined a final meal.
Officials had earlier said Hoffman would be strapped to a gurney before a full-face respirator mask fitted tightly on him.
Pure nitrogen gas was then pumped into the mask, forcing him to breathe it in and depriving him of the oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions.
The gas is supposed to be administered for at least 15 minutes, or five minutes after the inmate’s heart rate reaches a flatline indication on the EKG, whichever is longer.
Witness Gina Swanson, a reporter with WDSU, described the execution from her viewpoint as ‘clinical’ and ‘procedural’.
She said there was nothing that occurred during the process that made her think, ‘Was that right? Was that how it was supposed to go?’
Two media witnesses to Tuesday’s execution said Hoffman was covered with a grey plush blanket from the neck down.
Hoffman’s spiritual adviser was in the chamber with him.
Ahead of the execution and after the curtains closed to the viewing room, witnesses said they could hear Buddhist chanting.
The gas began to flow at 6.21pm and Hoffman started twitching, media witnesses said.
His hands clenched and he had a ‘slight head movement’.
Swanson said she closely watched the blanket over Hoffman’s chest area and could see it rise and fall, indicating that he was breathing.
She said his last visible breath appeared to be at 6.37pm.
Shortly after, the curtains between the chamber and witness viewing room closed. When they reopened, Hoffman was pronounced dead.
Seth Smith, chief of operations at the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, witnessed the execution and also acknowledged Hoffman’s movements.
He said he perceived the convulsions to be an ‘involuntary response to dying’ and that Hoffman appeared to be unconscious at the time.
Each inmate put to death using nitrogen in Alabama had appeared to shake and gasp to varying degrees during their executions, according to media witnesses, including an Associated Press reporter.
Alabama state officials said the reactions were involuntary movements associated with oxygen deprivation.
Hoffman was 18 years old and worked at a Sheraton hotel garage in the French Quarter of New Orleans when Elliott walked in after work and he kidnapped her at gunpoint. He forced her to take $200 out of an ATM and then drive to a remote area as she begged him to let her go uninjured.
Prosecutors say Hoffman raped Elliott and made her get out of the vehicle and walk down a dump area dirt path.
‘Her death march ultimately ended at a small, makeshift dock at the end of this path, where she was forced to kneel and shot in the head, execution style,’ stated prosecutors.
Elliott’s naked body was found on Thanksgiving Day.
Hoffman’s lawyer, Cecelia Kappel, said he has taken ‘full responsibility’ for the crime and feels great remorse.
‘He is so sorry to the family of Molly Elliott and he wishes to have opportunity before he dies to have a face-to-face conversation where he can apologize in person,’ Kappel told USA Today.
The last inmate to be executed by nitrogen gassing was Kenneth Eugene Smith in late January. Smith, who was convicted in a 1988 murder-for-hire killing of a preacher’s wife, had survived an attempted lethal injection execution two years prior.
Four states allow nitrogen hypoxia executions: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
Hoffman is scheduled to be executed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. He would be the seventh death row inmate to be executed in the US this year.
