Supreme Court Rejects Religious Objection to Lethal Gas Death

The US Supreme Court cleared the way for Louisiana to execute an inmate in a way he says will violate his Buddhist beliefs.

The court’s 5-4 order on Tuesday means Jessie Hoffman would be the first person in the state put to death by nitrogen hypoxia, a relatively new form of execution using nitrogen gas to induce suffocation. Alabama carried out the first nitrogen gas execution in the US last year.

His execution was scheduled for Tuesday evening. Hoffman was convicted of the 1996 murder and rape of Molly Elliott.

Along with arguing that the lethal gas will cause “psychological terror,” Hoffman claimed the method would make it impossible for him to die according to his religious beliefs because it will interfere with his meditative breathing.

The majority of the court, without explaining its reasoning, rejected those arguments. Its order noted the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, would’ve paused the execution. They didn’t explain their reasoning either.

Only Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote to describe why he would’ve temporarily stopped the execution.

Noting that no one questioned the sincerity of Hoffman’s religious beliefs, he said the lower court erred in making its own finding about what his religion required. Courts have “no license” to decide those questions, Gorsuch said.

The current conservative-led Supreme Court rarely steps in to stay executions. The justices this month allowed an execution by firing squad in South Carolina.

The justices have been sympathetic to religious claims, ruling 8-1 in 2022 that Texas couldn’t prohibit religious touch and audible prayer in the execution chamber.

The justices this year granted a new trial to an Oklahoma inmate after the state’s Republican attorney general said he could no longer stand behind the conviction.

The case is Hoffman v. Gary Westcott, U.S., No. 24A893, stay denied 3/18/25.