Supreme Court Won't Delay Louisiana Execution in 5-4 Vote

The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to stop Louisiana from carrying out its first execution in 15 years, rejecting an appeal from death row inmate Jessie Hoffman, The Hill reported.

Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the court's three liberal justices in dissent, arguing the case warranted further review.

Hoffman, 46, was executed Tuesday night at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for the 1996 kidnapping, rape, and murder of Molly Elliott.

Louisiana became the second state to use nitrogen gas for execution, a method first employed by Alabama last year.

The Supreme Court's five conservative justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — denied Hoffman's appeal without comment. The court's three liberal justices dissented, joined by Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's first appointee.

While the liberal justices did not explain their reasoning, Gorsuch wrote in a dissent that he would have sent the case back to a lower court for further review of Hoffman's claim that Louisiana's nitrogen hypoxia method substantially burdens his religious rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) of 2000.

Hoffman argued in his appeal that meditative breathing at the time of death holds deep spiritual significance in the Buddhist tradition. Gorsuch criticized the lower court for rejecting Hoffman's claim without adequately addressing the legal implications.

"The Court of Appeals failed to confront the district court's apparent legal error — or even to mention the RLUIPA claim Mr. Hoffman pressed on appeal. Perhaps that claim ultimately lacks merit. But the Fifth Circuit's unexplained omission leaves this Court poorly positioned to assess it," Gorsuch wrote.

The Supreme Court rarely grants last-minute stays of execution and has already denied multiple requests this year.

In court filings, the Louisiana attorney general's office argued that Hoffman had delayed his appeal too long and that the state was not violating his religious rights.

"Plaintiff has never argued that there is a legally appreciable difference between his breathing as he fades into unconsciousness by nitrogen hypoxia and his breathing as he would fade into unconsciousness after being shot by a firing squad," the state attorney general's office wrote.

Louisiana's planned execution follows Alabama's use of nitrogen gas in January, which was met with legal challenges and scrutiny from human rights advocates. State officials have defended the method as humane and efficient, while opponents argue it is untested and could cause unnecessary suffering.

One of Hoffman's lawyers, Cecelia Kappel, called the execution "senseless."

Hoffman "was a father, a husband, and a man who showed extraordinary capacity for redemption," she said in a statement. "Jessie no longer bore any resemblance to the 18-year-old who killed Molly Elliott."

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