BATON ROUGE, LA – A motion was filed earlier this month challenging the state of Louisiana’s use of nitrogen gas for the execution of death row inmates by Jessie Hoffman’s attorneys, found guilty by a jury in 1998 of first-degree murder in 1996.
But the pleading failed, and Hoffman is now set to be executed this Tuesday, March 18, after a three-judge 5th Circuit panel ruled 2-1 Friday to reverse the preliminary injunction U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued Tuesday, according to the Louisiana Illuminator.
A Catholic Archbishop charged the “state is saying it is OK to gas a person to death – a method of execution that’s not allowed on animals in almost every state.”
The publication added the judge’s order “followed a 12-hour hearing last week during which Hoffman, who is on death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, requested he be put to death by a firing squad or a physician-administered drug cocktail.”
Hoffman filed a complaint against the state of Louisiana, arguing the use of nitrogen gas for his execution would violate his constitutional rights, including the rights protected under the “First, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment.”
Additionally, attorneys argued in the complaint Hoffman is a practicing Buddhist and the use of nitrogen gas would “substantially burden and prevent Mr. Hoffman from practicing his Buddhist faith.”
Hoffman’s attorneys asserted that this would violate the “Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person’s Act and the free exercise clause of the First Amendment” in the Constitution.
And, earlier this month, the Clarion Herald published an article by Archbishop Gregory Aymond opposing the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a means of executing prisoners on death row.
Aymond writes that he, like the Catholic Church, opposes the death penalty as “an attack on human dignity.” Aymond argues that non-lethal methods of detention are available and work effectively to keep the public safe from those with serious offenses.
Aymond’s argument is supported by that of Pope Francis, who in 2018 deemed capital punishment “inadmissible.” According to Aymond, the Catholic Church has worked “tirelessly” in efforts to repeal the death penalty worldwide.
“Essentially, what the state is saying is it is OK to gas a person to death—a method of execution that’s not allowed on animals in almost every state!” writes Aymond.
The plaintiff’s attorneys note in the complaint the death row inmate was notified by the Department of Public Safety and Corrections that he would be executed by nitrogen hypoxia “less than 26 days before” the scheduled execution.
The attorneys for the plaintiff noted in the Memorandum in Support of Motion for Preliminary Injunction that “Louisiana has never before utilized forced nitrogen gassing to execute someone.”
Hoffman’s lawyers argued in the motion for a preliminary injunction that the protocol and details of the use of nitrogen gas are needed to understand how the “State intends to conduct this execution in a constitutionally appropriate manner.”
The attorneys of the plaintiff charged “the use of nitrogen gas in the execution of Mr. Hoffman would place a ‘substantial and unnecessary burden on his free exercise of Buddhism,’” challenging the legality of the execution protocol.
On March 7, Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick held an evidentiary hearing on the plaintiff’s motion for Preliminary Injunction.
Testimony was heard from Dr. Frederick Sautter, a psychologist who diagnosed the plaintiff in 2003 with “PTSD and Psychotic Disorder resulting from horrific trauma, violence and abuse as a child.”
Dr. Sautter testified that “executing Mr. Hoffman by nitrogen gas will very likely cause him to experience extreme psychological distress and panic,” noting Hoffman “may vomit, convulse, experience an inability to breathe, and otherwise suffer severe psychological pain.”
Michaela Bono, a Buddhist priest, testified on Hoffman’s ability to practice his faith if executed with nitrogen hypoxia. The priest noted in the hearing that taking away “Jessie’s ability to breathe the air as he dies will prevent him from practicing Buddhism at the time of his transition from life to death.”
A veterinarian who has seen the effects of nitrogen gas for the use of animal euthanasia testified to the court that the “practice was so gruesome” and “horrific to see.”
Archbishop Aymond noted the similarities between this method of execution and the methods used in Nazi death camps like Auschwitz, arguing that this new method is reminiscent of those used by the Nazis.
Aymond said veterinarians, experts in animal euthanasia “strongly object” to the use of nitrogen in human executions. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, gas suffocation, like nitrogen hypoxia, is an unacceptable method of euthanasia for most mammals, as it is distressing to the victims, said Aymond.
Aymond agrees with the audience of a local veterinarian press conference, saying, “‘If it’s too cruel for animals, it’s too cruel for people.’”
Aymond highlights the perspective of one veterinarian, Dr. Lawrence Capone, who visited a local animal shelter that euthanized its animals with gas in the 1980s.
“Dr. Capone said, ‘It was essentially a large coffin.’ Once the door was closed, the compartment was filled with carbon monoxide gas, and he can still viscerally remember the screaming and wailing he heard,” explained Aymond, adding there were “biological signs of how those animals had suffered (leading) Dr. Capone to rally others to outlaw such a brutal, inhumane method of killing.”
Aymond references a recent execution using nitrogen gas, during which an Alabama inmate’s heart kept beating for 13 minutes after the gas had started flowing.
Hoffman’s attorneys noted the United Nations has stated that the use of nitrogen gas may “amount to torture under international law” as a result of the “grave suffering” it may cause.
In the court hearing on March 7, it was noted by attorneys Hoffman is claustrophobic and will “likely experience a heightened level of superadded pain and suffering due to his long diagnosed PTSD and claustrophobia.”
