THE
ACADIANA
ADVOCATE
T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
Jessie Hoffman Jr. sentenced to death for 1996 rape, murder
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W e d n e s d ay, M a r c h 19, 2025
It is the first execution in Louisiana since 2010
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Nitrogen gas used for first time in death chamber at Angola
LA. EXECUTES INMATE After last-minute legal challenges failed, Hoffman died at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday
BY JAMES FINN and JOHN SIMERMAN
Staff writers
Louisiana executed a man convicted of murder with nitrogen gas on Tuesday evening — the state’s first execution in 15 years and its first using the largely untested method — after a raging legal battle that ended with a gas mask strapped over his face in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola death chamber. State officials pronounced Jessie Hoffman Jr. dead at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday at Angola. He inhaled pure nitrogen gas through a mask strapped to his face for 19 minutes while pinned to a gurney, officials said, until oxygen deprivation caused him to die. Officials acknowledged that Hoffman showed “convulsive Hoffman activity” as he died and that he moved and shook. Hoffman was on death row for the 1996 abduction, rape and execution-style slaying of 28-year-old Mary “Molly” Elliott in rural St. Tammany Parish. Hoffman declined to give a final statement or to eat a final meal at Angola, state officials said in a briefing after the execution. As Hoffman was executed, most of his body was covered with a thick blanket, though witnesses said his hands were visible with his index finger and thumb pointing toward each other — a sacred hand gesture in Buddhism.
ä See EXECUTES, page 8A
STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
Faith leaders, activists and supporters of Jessie Hoffman Jr. hug outside the entrance to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola moments after hearing that Hoffman was executed on Tuesday.
Friends, family gather at vigil outside Angola Speeches, prayers offered for Hoffman and his victim
STAFF PHOTO By JAMES FINN
Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Gary Westcott, right, holds up a photo of murder victim Mary ‘Molly’ Elliott while Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murill speaks at a news conference after the execution Tuesday of Jessie Hoffman Jr.
InterFaith against Executions. “For how we know deep in the marrow of our bones that we are all better than the worst thing that we’ve ever done.” Hoffman’s younger sister, Florence Ruffin, was among those who joined the vigil. After visiting her brother for the BY HALEY MILLER final time at Angola, she staggered out Staff writer of the prison, falling into the arms of a Around 50 friends, family members friend who waited for her at the vigil and supporters of Jessie Hoffman Jr. site. Ruffin carried a brown paper sack full gathered outside the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on a warm and of candy, the last gift from her brother. “Jessie Hoffman,” it read on the outbreezy Tuesday evening to pray for him and commemorate his life as the state side in thick marker. “8 Blowpops. 2 put him to death. Skittles.” “Jessie will always be remembered As the vigil began, she sat under an as a reason for why we do this work,” oak tree with the paper bag at her side. said Alison McCrary, spiritual adviser She rolled it up, placed it like a pillow on death row and director of Louisiana beneath her head and laid back on the
grass. Those at the vigil showed support for Hoffman and his family as well as the victim in his case, Mary “Molly” Elliott, and her family. Hoffman was convicted in the abduction, rape and murder of Elliott in 1996. Anti-death penalty advocates and representatives from many faiths — including Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism — gave speeches to the vigil crowd, calling for an end to executions in Louisiana and wishing Hoffman peace at the moment of death. “May this flame remind us that no life is beyond redemption, no soul beyond grace and no person beyond love,” said Lauren Sapp, deputy director of the
ä See VIGIL, page 7A
Boulet tells board approval not necessary for new library Contract in place, land purchased for northeast branch
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR
Staff writer
A 20,500-square-foot library will be built in northeast Lafayette, Mayor-President Monique Boulet said Monday after making it clear the Lafayette Public Library Board of Control’s consent is not
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necessary. After years of debate and delays, a board-appointed committee that hired a consultant to gauge the community’s wants and needs for the library recommended the board build the largest of three alternatives considered: 13,500, 17,500 and 20,500 square feet. The board, in February, once again delayed the decision “indefinitely” to gather more information. Boulet and City-Parish Attorney Pat Ottinger at Monday’s board
meeting said the decision to build the Northeast Regional Library and how big it should be lies with Boulet’s administration and the Parish Council, not the board. State attorney general opinions agree, Ottinger said. The contract is already in place and the land has been purchased, he said. Any contract adjustments will be done by Boulet, who will work with the Parish Council if additional money is needed, which is likely since only $8 million was set aside in 2019 for a 13,500-square-
foot building. “It’s going to happen at 20,500 square feet,” Boulet said after the meeting. “And I think we can do it well.” The larger library is estimated to cost an additional $5 million. Library Director Danny Gillane said the library system has the money in reserve to build and operate the new library as well as operate the existing libraries in the parish. The five board members in attendance voted to recommend building the 20,500-square-foot li-
Business ...................10C Commentary ................5B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................2B Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Living............................5C Sports ..........................1C
brary on 6 acres of land the parish bought on Shadow Bluff Drive off Louisiana Avenue. A library for northeast Lafayette, a socioeconomically challenged area cut off from all other libraries in the parish by Evangeline Thruway and interstates, has been under discussion at least since at least 2019 when then CityParish Council member Kenneth Boudreaux got $8 million earmarked to buy land and build the
ä See LIBRARY, page 9A
100TH yEAR, NO. 262