Jessie Hoffman Jr.

Jessie Dean Hoffman Jr. (September 1, 1978 – March 18, 2025) was an American convicted murderer who was sentenced to death in Louisiana for the 1996 rape and murder of Molly Elliott. On November 26, 1996, Hoffman, then 18, abducted the 28-year-old advertising executive in downtown New Orleans. After forcing her to withdraw money from an ATM at gunpoint, he made her drive to a remote area in St. Tammany Parish, where he raped and murdered her. Hoffman was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death on September 11, 1998. He was executed by nitrogen hypoxia on March 18, 2025, marking Louisiana's first execution in over fifteen years and its first use of nitrogen gas. This followed Alabama's use of the method in the executions of four inmates, starting with Kenneth Eugene Smith in January 2024 and ending with Demetrius Terrence Frazier in February 2025. Hoffman's execution became a subject of controversy as his lawyers argued that nitrogen hypoxia, an untested method in Louisiana, violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" and infringed on his religious rights. They also pointed to eyewitness accounts of the previous four nitrogen gas executions from Alabama, where inmates gasped and thrashed, challenging claims of a quick death. Although a federal district judge stayed the execution, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned it, and the U . Supreme Court ultimately denied Hoffman's final appeal by a 5–4 majority ruling, leading to Hoffman's execution.