An inmate on death row had a heartbreaking final request before being executed using a "cruel" method.
Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was sentenced to death for the 1996 r*pe and murder of Mary ‘Molly’ Elliott, a 28-year-old accounting executive from New Orleans, per Metro.
After spending nearly three decades on death row, he was executed on Tuesday evening at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
At just 18 years old, Hoffman worked at a Sheraton hotel garage in the French Quarter of New Orleans when he kidnapped Elliott at gunpoint after she had parked her car.
Prosecutors say he forced her to withdraw $200 from an ATM, then drove her to a remote area, ignoring her desperate pleas to be let go.
Once there, Hoffman sexually assaulted Elliott before marching her down a dirt path in what prosecutors described as her "death march".
"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," prosecutors said.
Her naked body was discovered on Thanksgiving Day.
Hoffman was the first Louisiana inmate to be executed using nitrogen gas - a controversial method that deprives the body of oxygen, leading to suffocation, per Sky News.
Despite the state banning nitrogen gas euthanasia for animals - due to concerns that conscious animals experience extreme distress - it was approved for human executions.
While Hoffman's defense team fought to stop the execution, arguing it violated both his constitutional rights and his Buddhist faith, the courts ultimately allowed it to proceed.
Hoffman declined both a final meal and a final statement before being strapped to a gurney and fitted with a tight full-face respirator mask.
At 6:21PM, pure nitrogen gas began flowing into the mask.
Witnesses inside the chamber described a calm but eerie scene.
"There was nothing that occurred during the process that made me think, ‘Was that right? Was that how it was supposed to go?’" said Gina Swanson, a WDSU reporter present at the execution.
Two media witnesses reported that Hoffman was covered with a grey plush blanket from the neck down, with his spiritual adviser present in the chamber.
Before the curtains closed, Buddhist chanting could be heard.
As the gas flowed, witnesses said Hoffman’s hands clenched, his body twitched, and his head made a slight movement.
Swanson said she closely watched the rise and fall of the blanket over Hoffman's chest, indicating he was still breathing until 6:37PM, when he appeared to take his last breath.
The chamber's curtains then briefly closed, and when they reopened, Hoffman was pronounced dead.
Louisiana officials have maintained that nitrogen gas is painless.
Seth Smith, Chief of Operations at the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, noted Hoffman's convulsions but dismissed concerns that he was in distress.
"I perceived the convulsions to be an involuntary response to dying, and he appeared to be unconscious at the time," Smith said.
However, previous nitrogen gas executions - including that of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama in January - have raised serious ethical questions.
In Alabama, witnesses saw Smith shake and gasp for several minutes, with some calling the method "experimental and inhumane".
Alabama state officials, however, argued that visible movements were simply involuntary responses to oxygen deprivation.
Louisiana had not executed an inmate in 15 years, largely due to problems obtaining lethal injection drugs. Officials argued that Hoffman’s execution was necessary to finally deliver justice to Elliott’s family.
Hoffman’s lawyer, Cecelia Kappel, said he had taken "full responsibility" for his actions and felt deep remorse for Elliott’s murder.
"He is so sorry to the family of Molly Elliott, and he wishes to have the opportunity before he dies to have a face-to-face conversation where he can apologize in person," Kappel told USA Today.
Hoffman, however, never got that chance.