Kelly Kissel

Mar 18, 2025 | wbrz.com | Kelly Kissel |David Hamilton

NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court has denied a stay request for a condemned prisoner just hours before his scheduled execution at the state penitentiary in Angola. In an unsigned 5-2 decision, the justices denied a stay for Jessie Hoffman, who is scheduled to die Tuesday night by nitrogen hypoxia. Hoffman says his execution could be torturous. Justice Jay McCallum wrote in a concurring opinion that the Constitution does not require that all executions be pain-free.

Mar 18, 2025 | wbrz.com | Kelly Kissel

BATON ROUGE — A judge has opened a hearing on whether Louisiana can asphyxiate a condemned prisoner Tuesday night without violating his religious rights as a Buddhist who practices meditative breathing to remain calm. Jessie Hoffman is scheduled to die by nitrogen hypoxia between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of a New Orleans advertising executive.

Mar 12, 2025 | wbrz.com | Kelly Kissel

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana's attorney general said Wednesday a federal judge was wrong to give a condemned prisoner additional time to claim under the U.S. Constitution that asphyxiating him with nitrogen gas might be a cruel or unusual punishment. Without ruling on the merit of his claim, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick said Tuesday that Jessie Hoffman deserved a chance to argue that Louisiana had access to means of execution that would invoke less psychological terror.

Mar 11, 2025 | wbrz.com | Kelly Kissel

BATON ROUGE — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the scheduled execution of a death row inmate who was set to die by nitrogen hypoxia at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola next week. Following a daylong hearing in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge, Judge Shelly Dick granted Jessie Hoffman's request for an injunction and said a trial should be held on his claims that death-by-asphyxiation could be a cruel or unusual punishment barred under the U.S. Constitution.

Mar 11, 2025 | wbrz.com | Kelly Kissel

inNewsSource: WBRZBATON ROUGE — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the scheduled execution of a death row inmate who was set to die by nitrogen hypoxia at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola next week. Following a daylong hearing in U.S. District Court, Judge Shelly Dick granted Jessie Hoffman's request for an injunction and said a trial should be held on his claims that death-by-asphyxiation could be a cruel or unusual punishment barred under the U.S. Constitution.