Jessie Hoffman Jr., who is scheduled to become the first person Louisiana puts to death using nitrogen gas, testified in federal court on Friday to ask that the state find another way.
Hoffman, 46, has spent the majority of his life on death row over the 1996 abduction, rape and execution-style killing of Mary “Molly” Elliott in rural St. Tammany Parish. He appeared in court in Baton Rouge on Friday in an orange jumpsuit, one hand shackled and surrounded by security guards.
Hoffman recently filed a lawsuit against the state, alleging that the plan to use nitrogen hypoxia to execute him on March 18 constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution…