Death Penalty News

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Facing imminent execution by lethal gas earlier this week, Jessie Hoffman Jr. — a Louisiana man convicted of abducting, raping and murdering a 28-year-old woman in 1996 — went to court with a request: Please allow me to be shot instead. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on March 16 seeking a stay of his execution by nitrogen hypoxia, a protocol that had yet to be tested in the state, Hoffman requested execution by firing squad as an alternative.

Louisiana used nitrogen gas Tuesday evening to execute a man convicted of murdering a woman in 1996, the 1st time the state has used the method, a lawyer for the condemned man said.  Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was put to death at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, defense lawyer Cecelia Kappel said in a statement. He was the 1st person executed in the state in 15 years, and his death marked the 5th use of the nitrogen gas method in the US, with all the rest in Alabama.  Hoffman was convicted of the murder of Mary "Molly" Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive. At the time of the crime, Hoffman was 18.

Jessie Hoffman's attorneys race against time to halt the historic execution, raising questions about justice and human rights BATON ROUGE, La. -- Attorneys for Louisiana death row inmate Jessie Hoffman Jr. are mounting last-minute efforts to halt his scheduled execution using nitrogen gas, set to occur on Tuesday evening, March 18, 2025. This execution would mark both Louisiana's first nitrogen gas execution and the fifth such execution in the United States, raising significant legal and ethical questions surrounding this controversial method.

BATON ROUGE, La. — A federal judge has halted Louisiana's first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was scheduled to take place next week. U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, stopping the state from immediately moving forward with the execution, which would have been Louisiana's first in 15 years. Attorney General Liz Murrill said the state will immediately appeal the decision.

SINGAPORE: Yong Vui Kong is alive and well, though still incarcerated, as he sees the 15th year since a last-minute appeal saved his life from the gallows. Vui Kong’s story was well publicized after he was arrested for possession of 47.27 grams of heroin. This occurred in 2007 when the Malaysian was only 19 years old.

Randy Halprin was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 in the killing of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins. 1 of 2 living members of the "Texas 7" prison gang, all of whom were convicted in the murder of a North Texas police officer in 2000, could get a new trial over his judge's alleged anti-Semitic comments, according to sources. Randy Halprin was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 in the killing of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins. But nearly 20 years later, witnesses have testified that the judge in Halprin's case, Vickers Cunningham, was known to make racial and anti-Semitic comments against Halprin, who is Jewish. Sources say prosecutors now agree that the 2003 trial judge exhibited bias against Halprin, which prevented a fair and impartial trial. This is another step in Halprin potentially getting a new trial. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will have to sign off for that to happen. Tivon Schardl, Halrpin's attorney, wrote in a statemen...

A rare audio recording of an exchange between a death row inmate, his sister and prison staff two days before the man was hanged will be presented as evidence in a lawsuit filed by 2 condemned prisoners contesting the constitutionality of informing convicts of their executions just hours before they take place. The reel-to-reel recording at the Osaka Detention House in 1955 was made at the behest of Sakuro Tamai, the prison warden. The inmate was handed the death sentence for fatally shooting a police officer during the course of a robbery. He was informed of the time of his execution 2 days beforehand. The recording lasts around 100 minutes. A member of staff is heard telling the inmate to make sure he gets everything off his chest. The sister visited over 2 days and told her brother how his family was holding up. The inmate chats about his childhood and his thoughts for his aged mother. He ends the conversation by thanking his sister for all that she had done. “Please give my best re...

Texas once again demonstrates that it can show the rest of the country the way and is now doing so at considerable expense to itself, by arguing a death penalty case in the United States Supreme Court. The current case is not the first time Texas has taken steps to address death penalty practices that have caught national attention. In 2011 it addressed the question of the death penalty prospect’s cuisine. It has long been a tradition in many states that in order to make the hours immediately preceding the execution of the death penalty more pleasant for its beneficiary, the beneficiary may select the last meal he or she will ever eat. Until 2011, the beneficiary of the death penalty in Texas could select whatever he or she wanted for a last meal. Since it was taking place in Texas, cost was no object. That changed in 2011, however, because of the egregious behavior of Lawrence Russell Brewer. On January 24, 1992, the day on which Lawrence was to be executed, Mr. Brewer could, accordin...

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether John Henry Ramirez, a Texan convicted of murder, is entitled to have his pastor by his side when he’s executed. John Henry Ramirez doesn’t want to be executed, though he knows why a lot of Texans—including the state attorney general and the head of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ)—wish him dead. One night in July 2004, Ramirez, high on cocaine, marijuana, and vodka, drove around Corpus Christi to find someone to rob so he could buy more drugs. He saw Pablo Castro emptying the trash outside the convenience store where he worked. Ramirez stabbed Castro, a 45-year-old father of 9, 29 times, and went through his pockets, stealing $1.25. Castro died, and Ramirez was caught, found guilty of capital murder, and sentenced to die. Ramirez, now 37, has never claimed innocence. At his 2008 trial he admitted to the murder, and during the punishment phase he instructed his lawyers to stop trying to save him and just read Psalm 51:3 aloud: “F...

HOUSTON (AP) — Executions in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state face delays amid legal questions over Texas’ refusal to allow spiritual advisers to touch inmates and pray aloud as condemned individuals are being put to death. It’s unclear when Texas may carry out another execution after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear religious freedom claims from death row inmate John Henry Ramirez. The court blocked his execution last month, about three hours after it could have been carried out.  Several other inmates have since made similar claims, and courts have put some of their executions on hold. “It would be unusual for somebody who has the same issue to not get a stay while the Supreme Court is deciding that issue. It would be very unusual,” said Michael Benza, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. A ruling from the Supreme Court could be months away. It’s set to hear oral arguments on Nov. 1. Ramirez says the state is violating his religio...

For Pastor Dana Moore, the request is straightforward. He wants to hold hands and pray with a member of his congregation. But Moore’s otherwise simple desire is caught up in an epic legal struggle at the Supreme Court because of where and with whom he wants to do his work: A Texas execution chamber where the state intends to put convicted murderer John Ramirez to death. "I just want to be able to touch John," said Moore, who for years has made the four-hour drive once a month from his Second Baptist church in Corpus Christi to minister to Ramirez in prison. "If I'm standing right by him, why can't I just reach out?"  Ramirez’s case, which will be argued at the Supreme Court Nov. 1, comes as the justices have been expanding religious protections for all Americans, including death row inmates. It raises fundamental questions about what spiritual allowances states must make for those facing a death sentence. When a spiritual adviser is present at an execution, ...

Ruben Gutierrez was to be executed Oct. 27 for stabbing an 85-year-old Brownsville woman to death in 1998. Another Texas inmate has had his execution delayed over claims the state is violating his religious freedom by not letting his spiritual adviser lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection. Ruben Gutierrez was set to be executed on Oct. 27 for fatally stabbing an 85-year-old Brownsville woman in 1998. But a judge on Wednesday granted a request by the Cameron County District Attorney's Office to vacate the execution date. Prosecutors said the U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming review of similar religious freedom issues made by another inmate, John Henry Ramirez, whose execution the high court delayed last week, will impact Gutierrez's case. "As the Ramirez matter may be dispositive of any issue related to Gutierrez's religious liberty claim, it is in the best interest of the state, the family of the victim of Gutierrez's crimes, that his execution be de...

U.S. Supreme Court to decide how an inmate can practice religion in his final minutes Deep within the Huntsville “Walls” Unit sits a building that contains the most active death chamber in the United States. That chamber sat empty for much of 2020 and 2021. With 5 executions scheduled through the rest of 2021, a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision could now delay most or all of them. One death row inmate has already been successful with the argument. On Wednesday, Ruben Gutierrez was granted a request to vacate his execution date over claims that the state is violating his religious freedom by not letting his spiritual adviser lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection. It's the same argument that the U.S. Supreme Court recently found compelling enough to act and halt an execution. “You could see many executions get delayed, but it depends on what the prisoners request,” said Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no pos...