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T u e s d ay, M a r c h 18, 2025
Last-minute filings seek to stop execution Lawyers for Hoffman lodge challenges in state, federal courts
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Audit finds worsening prenatal care in La.
Report details lack of doctors, transportation issues BY EMILY WOODRUFF
Staff writer
A state audit found that pregnant Medicaid patients in Louisiana often struggle to access prenatal and postpartum care because there aren’t enough nearby doctors who accept the government-funded health insurance, provider lists are frequently inaccurate and many people lack reliable transportation, especially in rural areas. The report, released Monday by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor‘s Office, reviewed the state Health Department’s efforts to improve maternal health — an area where Louisiana has long ranked among the worst in the nation. Despite increased attention and funding, the share of pregnant women in the state who did not receive first-trimester prenatal care rose from 22.5% in 2018 to nearly 26% in 2023. Medicaid patients were most affected, with 3 out of 4 missing timely care. The majority of new babies in Louisiana, 63.5%, are born to women insured by Medicaid. The audit found that the Louisiana Department of Health spent nearly $400 million on maternal health reform through the Managed Care Incentive Payment program from February 2020 to March 2024, but some initiatives were duplicative or lacked measurable outcomes. “A lot of money is being put toward it, but there aren’t a lot of measurable outcomes or new things being created,” said Chris Magee, a data analytics manager at the Auditor’s Office.
ä See AUDIT, page 4A
PHOTO PROVIDED By THE JESSIE HOFFMAN LEGAL TEAM
Observers sitting outside the new execution chamber at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola will witness the execution. BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN and JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writers
Mary ‘Molly’ Elliott was kidnapped, raped and fatally shot in St. Tammany Parish in 1996.
The legal team for death row inmate Jessie Hoffman has filed a flurry of last-minute court challenges in hopes of stopping the death row inmate from becoming the first person in Louisiana to be executed by nitrogen gas on Tuesday night as scheduled. Hoffman’s attorneys filed challenges in both state and federal courts on Monday as they sought a judge willing to stop the first Louisiana execution in 15 years. A state judge in East Baton Rouge’s 19th Judicial District Court and a federal judge in New
Orleans will consider two of those challenges Tuesday morning, just hours ahead of the scheduled execution, which is required to happen between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Hoffman is on death row for the 1996 abduction, rape and murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott in rural St. Tammany Parish. An attorney for Hoffman on Monday filed a request for an injunction in state court that would stop the execution on the grounds that it would violate Louisiana’s religious freedom laws. Hoffman is a practicing Buddhist. His lawyers have argued that killing him using nitrogen gas
Jessie Hoffman was sentenced to death in 1998 after being found guilty of Elliott’s ä See EXECUTION, page 4A murder.
16th Judicial District Attorney Duhé dies
District Judge Buddy Fleming the years, including the Evangeline Funeral set for Wednesday Judicial before becoming an assistant district Area Boy Scout Council Iberia Parish at St. Peter’s in New Iberia attorney in 1993, prosecuting major Distinguished Citizen of the Year award
Staff report Martin Bofill “Bo” Duhé, the 16th Judicial District attorney for Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary parishes, died Saturday. A native of New Iberia, Duhé served as district attorney since January 2015 and prosecuted many major criminal cases. Duhé, 62, was a 1984 general business graduate of then University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, according to his obituary. He worked for five years at savings and loan businesses before entering Tulane Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1992. He worked as a law clerk for 16th
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felony crimes. Duhé was involved in several organizations related to his profession, including the Louisiana District Attorneys Association. He served on the board of that organization as well as its Duhé president and on the legislative and technology committees. He also served on the Louisiana Justice Reinvestment Task Force, the Louisiana District Attorney Juvenile Justice Task Force and was president of the Acadiana Criminalistics Laboratory and a board member of First National Bank of Jeanerette. Duhé received several honors over
in 2015, Chez Hope Peacemaker Award in 2017 and the Virginia Tyler Guillotte Award from the St. Mary Chamber of Commerce in 2019. A Mass of Christian burial will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, 108 E. St. Peter St. in New Iberia. Interment will follow in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Pellerin Funeral Home, 502 Jefferson Terrace, New Iberia, and will continue from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to VOICE, a nonprofit organization for victims of crimes and their families, P.O. Box 10201, New Iberia, LA 70562.
PHOTO PROVIDED By THE U.S. AIR FORCE
Members of the 403rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss. tend to a WC-130J assigned to the hurricane hunters.
Trump team urges more cuts to NOAA Move could impact National Weather Service
BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer
When Chris Franklin and other meteorologists at WWL Louisiana broadcast vital weather forecasts, they don’t do it alone. They are in ongoing communication with National Weather Service forecasters. Franklin said there’s an active chat 24 hours a day, and before severe weather — like the strong line of thunderstorms that roared through the region on Saturday — the conversation ramps up, adding video calls. “We pick their brains as almost co-workers in forecasting daily weather,” Franklin said. “Those are the folks that are issuing those watches and warnings, so when we’re on air talking about a tornado warning, talking about a severe thunderstorm warning or flooding, this is coming from the National Weather Service.”
Business ...................10C Commentary ................3B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................4B Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................2B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Living............................5C Sports ..........................1C
ä See NOAA, page 6A
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