News from the South - Louisiana News Feed
5th Circuit Court gives go-ahead for Louisiana’s first nitrogen gas execution
5th Circuit Court gives go-ahead for Louisiana’s first nitrogen gas execution
by Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator
March 14, 2025
NEW ORLEANS – A federal appeals court Friday overturned a district judge’s order that had blocked Louisiana’s first planned execution using nitrogen gas, allowing the state to carry out the death sentence Tuesday barring a last-minute reversal.
An attorney for convicted killer Jessie Hoffman said she will take the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Louisiana last put a condemned person to death in 2010 using lethal injection, and 56 people currently await execution.
Hoffman was found guilty of the 1996 murder of Mary “Molly” Elliot, 29. Investigators said Hoffman kidnapped Elliot after she left work in downtown New Orleans the day before Thanksgiving, drove her to a remote area near the Pearl River, raped and shot her. A hunter found her nude body the next day.
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State lawmakers and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry approved a switch to nitrogen gas as Louisiana’s preferred execution method in 2024 after the state failed for years to acquire the drugs needed for lethal injections. Under public pressure, major pharmaceutical companies have stopped making the medications available for the death penalty.
Attorneys for Hoffman argue that death by nitrogen hypoxia, in which the subject is deprived of oxygen, is a form of cruel and unusual punishment that is prohibited under the U.S. Constitution.
The three-judge 5th Circuit panel ruled 2-1 to reverse the preliminary injunction U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued Tuesday. Her 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.
“The preliminary injunction is not just wrong. It gets the Constitution backwards, because it’s premised on the odd notion that the Eighth Amendment somehow requires Louisiana to use an admittedly more painful method of execution — namely, execution by firing squad rather than by nitrogen hypoxia. That can’t be right,” 5th Circuit Judge James Ho wrote in his prevailing opinion.
President Donald Trump appointed Ho to the appellate court in 2017, a year before he nominated the third member of the panel, Judge Andrew Oldham, to the 5th Circuit.
Judge Catharina Hayes, a 5th Circuit appointee of former President George W. Bush, dissented, agreeing with the district judge that Hoffman has not been given enough time to challenge Louisiana’s new form of execution.
On Feb. 10, the governor made the formal, legally required announcement that he had established the state’s protocol for carrying out the death penalty with nitrogen. St. Tammany-Washington District Attorney Collin Sims obtained a death warrant for Hoffman two days later, setting his execution date for March 18. Details in protocol weren’t made public until March 5.
“The timeline in which [Hoffman] could challenge it and the setting of his execution date … all happened within the last month,” Hayes wrote in her opinion. “As the district judge thoroughly discusses, there are issues that need more time to be resolved and decided. Obviously, that cannot be done once he is dead.”
Cecelia Koppel, one of Hoffman’s attorneys, told the Illuminator before Friday evening’s 5th Circuit ruling she was prepared for the case to go up to the Supreme Court regardless of decision.
Attorney General Liz Murrill has represented the state in challenges to its death penalty method.
“This is justice for Mary ‘Molly’ Elliot, her friends, her family, and for Louisiana,” Murrill said in a statement after the 5th Circuit ruling.
Murrill has previously told the Associated Press that Louisiana intends to execute at least four people this year. It would become the second state to carry out nitrogen executions, following Alabama where the method has been used four times since February 2024.
Some witnesses to those executions have said the condemned men went through significant distress, and that their deaths were not instantaneous. Dr. Joseph Antognini, a California anesthesiologist, has countered those claims. Murrill called on him as an expert witness for last week’s hearing before Judge Dick.
In Friday’s interview, Koppel questioned the integrity of the information Murrill’s expert provided.
“Dr. Antognini, who is a hired hand by the state, has testified in at least 20 different cases around the country, basically rubber stamping the state’s execution methods in each and every one of those cases,” Koppel said.
Dick put more credence in the defense’s hypoxia expert, Dr. Philip Bickler also of California, according to Koppel. But in his majority opinion, Ho dismissed any notions that nitrogen hypoxia involves suffering, and he noted Louisiana has modeled its protocol after Alabama’s.
“Breathing 100% pure nitrogen causes unconsciousness in less than a minute, with death following rapidly within ten to fifteen minutes,” Ho wrote. “And it does not produce physical pain.”
Hoffman’s death was scheduled for the day after the execution of Christopher Sepulvado, who had been sentenced to die for the 1992 murder of his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer, in DeSoto Parish. But Sepulvado, 81, died Feb. 22 at Angola’s infirmary. He had been in failing health for months, which his lawyers said made his pending execution pointless.
The last person Louisiana put to death 15 years ago was Gerald Bordelon, 47, who gave up the right to appeal his execution for the rape and murder of his 12-year-old stepdaughter Courtney LeBlanc.
Prior to Bordelon, lethal injection had been most recently used in 2002 for Leslie Dale Martin, who had contested his execution for the rape and murder of 19-year-old McNeese State student Christina Burgin in 1991.
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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed
Louisiana’s juvenile crime amendment draws bipartisan opposition, district attorney support
Louisiana’s juvenile crime amendment draws bipartisan opposition, district attorney support
by Julie O’Donoghue, Louisiana Illuminator
March 17, 2025
It’s not everyday that conservative activist Chris Alexander finds himself on the same side of a political fight as the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana. But a ballot measure that could make it easier to send minors to adult prisons has brought him together with many liberal advocates.
Alexander runs the Louisiana Citizen Advocacy Group and produces a podcast called “State of Freedom.” He’s known for his fights against vaccine mandates and denying the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
More recently, however, he has been campaigning against Constitutional Amendment 3 on the March 29 ballot. The proposal would give the Louisiana Legislature more authority to expand the list of crimes for which a person under 17 could be sent to an adult prison.
Persons age 14-16 can already be treated as adults in the criminal justice system when accused of one of 16 serious offenses, including murder, rape and armed robbery. If Amendment 3 passes, lawmakers would have the authority to add other felonies to that list without voters’ permission.
“It’s going to do nothing to reduce crime in Louisiana. Nothing,” Alexander said in an interview last week.
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A menagerie of groups who oppose Amendment 3 repeated that sentiment ahead of early voting, which started Saturday. They range from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, one of the state’s largest unions, to the Leaders for a Better Louisiana, made up of business leaders.
Among the most surprising opponents are eight retired Louisiana juvenile justice and prison officials, including two former heads of the state juvenile justice system, a previous director of probation and parole services, and a retired adult prison warden. They released a statement this week encouraging people to vote against Amendment 3.
“The professionals in corrections that worked in this field do not think this is a good idea,” said Mary Livers, former deputy secretary of juvenile justice under Gov. Bobby Jindal. “We do not want to send more kids to adult prisons. That may get people elected but it’s not good policy.”
But Gov. Jeff Landry, the most powerful elected official in the state, is personally backing the amendment. He won his 2024 campaign by promising to bring a tough-on-crime approach back to Louisiana and capitalized on a crime spike during the COVID-19 pandemic to increase funding for law enforcement and lengthen prison sentences.
Last week in Terrebonne Parish, the governor encouraged people at a business group luncheon to vote in favor of Amendment 3, characterizing it as another step toward increasing public safety.
“[R]ight now on the ballot, there are four amendments, and one of those amendments is Amendment 3 that is going to further aid us,” he said.
But opponents argue there is no evidence that putting younger teenagers in adult prisons makes communities safer as Landry claims.
The amendment opponents also point to scientific studies that show a person’s brain doesn’t fully develop until their mid-20s, meaning younger people who commit crimes have far more capacity for rehabilitation. Teenagers’ lack of brain development also explains why they exhibit poor judgment and commit offenses they might not do once they reach adulthood.
The U.S. Supreme Court has found this brain science so convincing, they ruled in multiple cases to limit criminal sentences for minors. The justices abolished the death penalty and life sentences for all crimes except murder for defendants in their adolescence.
Still, Amendment 3 has one powerful group of supporters: The Louisiana District Attorneys Association has endorsed the proposal, executive director Zach Daniels said.
Current restrictions in the Louisiana Constitution make it difficult for state lawmakers to respond to modern public safety concerns, Daniels said. He considers the list of crimes that allow someone under 17 to be transferred into adult outdated, and said lawmakers need to be able to revise it without having to go through a statewide vote each time.
“None of that should have been in the constitution to begin with,” Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto, who also supports the amendment, said in an interview.
Amendment supporters point to carjacking as an example of an offense that should be added to the list of crimes.
State Rep. Debbie Villio, a Republican who sponsored the legislation to get Amendment 3 on the ballot, said in January that she would likely file a bill to expand the types of carjackings that could land a younger teen in adult prison if voters approve the measure.
Minors as young as 15 can already go to adult prison for carjacking with a weapon under the state’s armed robbery statute. Villio wants to add carjacking “by use of force or intimidation” — in other words without a weapon — to the list of crimes could get a younger minor transferred to adult prison.
Should that happen, 15- and 16-year-olds could face much longer sentences. An adult found guilty of carjacking without a weapon can be put in prison five to 20 years for an initial conviction, a maximum sentence four times longer than the current guidelines for people under 17.
Amendment opponents argue putting more teens into adult facilities will be expensive for the state. Teenagers are easily influenced by older prisoners and more vulnerable to coercion and threats, they maintain. It takes more prison staff and more money to keep them safe in adult correctional facilities, according to Kelly Ward, a retired warden who managed the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer who is against the amendment.
The federal government also requires adult prisons to house minors separate from incarcerated adults.
“If you are going to spend money on additional resources, then why not take those resources and apply them into a juvenile system that is designed for that age group?” Ward said.
It’s not clear there’s a formal political campaign in support of Amendment 3.
Daniels said it was be left up to individual district attorneys to decide how much they want to campaign for the proposal. Landry, who has vast political resources, could put up money for a late advertising push if he wanted, but there isn’t a high-profile effort to do so yet.
The amendment’s opposition has a more visible public campaign two weeks out from the election. A large coalition of mostly left-leaning organizations has launched a “No on 3” website and has paid for digital advertising, yard signs and direct mail pieces across the state.
“The Legislature is asking for a blank check to fill our adult jails and prisons with children,” said Sara Omojola, a criminal justice advocate and coordinator for the “No on 3” coalition. “We can’t really trust them with that judgement and that power.”
At least two influential, right-leaning groups working to pass the three other amendments on the March 29 ballot are sitting out the Amendment 3 fight.
The Pelican Institute, a conservative think tank focused on Louisiana, is encouraging its followers to vote yes on every other proposal except Amendment 3, for which it hasn’t taken a position. The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry also announced its support for every amendment except for No. 3 this month.
Will Greene, LABI’s CEO and president, said the group decided not to take a stance because the amendment didn’t touch upon the group’s main mission to improve Louisiana’s business climate.
Editor Greg LaRose contributed to this report.
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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed
A nice, calm week of spring weather ahead
SUMMARY: A calm week of spring weather is ahead, following recent tornadoes that affected the area. An EF1 tornado caused damage in East Fork, while a stronger EF3 tornado occurred near Derbigny. Fortunately, severe impacts were avoided as the worst weather passed by. Upcoming forecasts show cool mornings with temperatures starting around 39°F to 50°F, warming up to around 70°F during the day, with plenty of sunshine expected. A weak front may bring minor rain late in the week, but overall, rain chances remain low. Temperatures could peak at 80°F by Wednesday before a cooldown follows.

Meteorologist Devon Lucie runs down the two tornadoes that developed within minutes of each other and took nearly the exact same path while running down how chilly our mornings will be, how warm our afternoons will be, when our next rain chances arrive, when the spring equinox comes, and your seven day forecast.
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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed
Tornadoes in Louisiana and Mississippi rated EF-3 and EF-2, surveys ongoing
SUMMARY: Two tornadoes have been confirmed in Mississippi following a recent outbreak, with surveys still ongoing. Preliminary reports indicate an EF-3 tornado from Kentwood to Darbun, Mississippi, and an EF-2 near Tylertown, Mississippi. These ratings are based on wind speeds, with EF-3 having winds up to 165 mph and EF-2 reaching 111 mph. The National Weather Service survey teams continue to gather more details, and further updates will follow. The weather today has been mild, with temperatures around 70°F. Looking ahead, St. Patrick’s Day weather is expected to be pleasant, with another potential rain event later this week.

The surveys are ongoing, and the ratings could change.
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