Louisiana’s attorney general has filed a brief defending the planned execution of a man convicted of a 1996 murder.
Jessie Hoffman is on death row for the 1996 murder of New Orleans ad executive Mary “Molly” Elliott. His execution is scheduled for March 18. Hoffman has filed a federal complaint and motion to block the execution because of concerns about the use of nitrogen hypoxia. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for March 7.
“On the night before Thanksgiving Day in 1996, Jessie Hoffman kidnapped, robbed, and raped Mary ‘Molly” Elliot,” Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office said in a release about her brief. “He then marched her — still naked — down a dirt path which was overgrown with vegetation and in an area full of trash used as a dump.
Murrill
| File photo
“Her death march ultimately ended at a small, makeshift dock on Middle Pearl River, where Hoffman forced her to kneel and shot her in the head, execution style. She likely survived for a few minutes after being shot.
“But she was not discovered until Thanksgiving Day, when a duck hunter came across her naked body on the dock. For his part, Hoffman soon thereafter took his girlfriend shopping with Molly’s money.”
Murrill says the court should deny Hoffman’s motion for preliminary injunction and dismiss his complaint outright.
“We have and will continue to vigorously defend the state’s obligation to carry out this sentence and bring justice to the family and friends of Molly Elliot,” Murrill said.
In his filing, Hoffman says Louisiana’s execution protocol is undisclosed and violates his constitutional rights. He says the state has refused to release details about the method.
The lawsuit says nitrogen hypoxia replaces oxygen with nitrogen and causes death by suffocation. It says nitrogen hypoxia has led to prolonged and distressing executions in Alabama, the only state to have used it.
Hoffman challenges the alleged secrecy surrounding Louisiana’s execution protocol, saying it denies him due process and raises concerns about potential cruel and unusual punishment.
Hoffman also has filed a supplemental clemency application, noting his rehabilitation and transformation over nearly three decades in prison.
If the execution does take place, Hoffman would be the first person put to death in Louisiana since 2010.