ANGOLA, La. (AP) — Louisiana used nitrogen gas to put a man to death Tuesday evening for a killing decades ago, marking the first time the state has used the method as it resumed executions after a 15-year hiatus.
Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, authorities said, adding the nitrogen gas had flowed for 19 minutes during what one official characterized as a “flawless” execution.
Witnesses to the execution said Hoffman appeared to involuntarily shake or had "some convulsive activity.” But the three witnesses who spoke — including two members of the media — agreed that, based on the protocol and what they learned about the execution method, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Witness Gina Swanson, a reporter with WDSU, described the execution from her viewpoint as “clinical” and “procedural.” She said there was nothing that occurred during the process that made her think, “Was that right? Was that how it was supposed to go?”
Hoffman declined to make a final statement in the execution chamber. He also declined a final meal.
It was the fifth time nitrogen gas was used in the U.S. after four executions by the same method — all in Alabama. Three other executions, by lethal injection, are scheduled this week — in Arizona on Wednesday and in Florida and Oklahoma on Thursday.
Hoffman was convicted of the murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive who was killed in New Orleans. At the time of the crime, Hoffman was 18 and has since spent much of his adult life at the penitentiary in rural southeast Louisiana, where he was executed Tuesday evening.
After court battles earlier this month, attorneys for Hoffman had turned to the Supreme Court in last-ditch hopes of halting the execution. Last year, the court declined to intervene in the nation’s first nitrogen hypoxia execution, in Alabama.
Hoffman’s lawyers had unsuccessfully argued that the nitrogen gas procedure — which deprives a person of oxygen — violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The man’s lawyers, in a last-ditch appeal, also argued the method would infringe on Hoffman’s freedom to practice religion, specifically his Buddhist breathing and meditation in the moments leading up to death.
Louisiana officials maintained the method is painless. They also said it was past time for the state to deliver justice as promised to victims’ families after a decade and a half hiatus — one brought on partly by an inability to secure lethal injection drugs.
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 in declining to step in.
Hours earlier at a hearing Tuesday, a 19th Judicial District Court Judge Richard “Chip” Moore also declined to stop the execution. He agreed with the state's lawyers who had argued the man’s religion-based arguments fell under the jurisdiction of a federal judge who had already ruled on them, according to local news outlets.
Under the Louisiana protocol, which is nearly identical to Alabama’s, officials had earlier said Hoffman would be strapped to a gurney before a full-face respirator mask fitted tightly on him. Pure nitrogen gas was then pumped into the mask, forcing him to breathe it in and depriving him of the oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions.
The protocol called for the gas to be administered for at least 15 minutes or five minutes after the inmate’s heart rate reaches a flatline indication on the EKG, whichever is longer.
Two media witnesses to Tuesday's execution said Hoffman was covered with a gray plush blanket from the neck down. In the chamber with Hoffman was his spiritual adviser. Ahead of the execution and after the curtains closed to the viewing room, witnesses said they could hear Buddhist chanting.
The gas began to flow at 6:21 p.m. and Hoffman started twitching, media witnesses said. His hands clenched and he had a "slight head movement." Swanson said she closely watched the blanket over Hoffman's chest area and could see it rise and fall, indicating that he was breathing. She said his last visible breath appeared to be at 6:37 p.m. Shortly after, the curtains between the chamber and witness viewing room closed. When they reopened, Hoffman was pronounced dead.
Seth Smith, chief of operations at the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, witnessed the execution and also acknowledged Hoffman's movements. Smith, who has a medical background, said he perceived the convulsions to be an "involuntary response to dying" and that Hoffman appeared to be unconscious at the time.
Each inmate put to death using nitrogen in Alabama had appeared to shake and gasp to varying degrees during their executions, according to media witnesses, including an Associated Press reporter. Alabama state officials said the reactions were involuntary movements associated with oxygen deprivation.
Alabama first used nitrogen gas to put Kenneth Eugene Smith to death last year, marking the first time a new method had been used in the U.S. since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma specifically authorize execution by nitrogen hypoxia, according to records compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center. Arkansas was added to the list on Tuesday.
Seeking to resume executions, Louisiana’s GOP-dominated Legislature expanded the state’s approved death penalty methods last year to include nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution. Lethal injection was already in place.
On Tuesday, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation allowing executions using nitrogen gas, making hers the fifth state to adopt the method. Arkansas currently has 25 people on death row.
Over recent decades, the number of executions nationally has declined sharply amid legal battles, a shortage of lethal injection drugs and waning public support for capital punishment. That has led a majority of states to either abolish or pause carrying out the death penalty.
On Tuesday afternoon, a small group of execution opponents held a vigil outside the rural southeast Louisiana prison at Angola, where the state’s executions are carried out. Some passed out prayer cards with photos of a smiling Hoffman and planned a Buddhist reading and “Meditation for Peace.”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she expects at least four people to be executed this year in the state. Following Hoffman’s execution, she said justice had been delayed for far too long and now Hoffman ”faces the ultimate judgment, the judgment before God."
FILE - Vehicles enter at the main security gate at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., Aug. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Judi Bottoni, File)
This undated photo shows Louisiana death row inmate Jessie Hoffman Jr., who was convicted in the 1996 murder of Mary "Molly" Elliott. (Caroline Tillman/Federal Public Defender's Office For the Middle and Western Districts of Louisiana via AP)
U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’ s termination “cannot come fast enough” as he reiterated his frustration that the Fed hasn’t aggressively cut interest rates.
The president’s broadside came a day after Powell said in a speech that Trump’s broad-based tariffs have left the Federal Reserve seeking “greater clarity” on the impact of policy changes in areas such as immigration, taxation, regulation, and tariffs before making potential cuts.
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The comments Thursday come from the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog while on a visit to the Islamic Republic.
Speaking in Tehran, Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency also acknowledged his agency likely would be key in verifying compliance by Iran should a deal be reached. Iran and the U.S. will meet again Saturday in Rome for a new round of talks after last weekend’s first meeting in Oman.
The stakes of the negotiations and the wider geopolitical tensions in the Mideast couldn’t be higher, particularly as the Israel-Hamas war rages on in the Gaza Strip. President Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
▶ Read more about nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran
That’s if the university doesn’t agree to turn over “detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities” by April 30.
More than 27% of Harvard’s student body comes from another country.
The department also said it was cancelling two grants totaling $2.7 million to the university.
The moves are an escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on Harvard, which so far has defied the administration’s demands in a battle over federal funding, diversity policies and campus activism.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is calling on the Justice Department to investigate whether the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence qualifies as a federal hate crime.
The suspect, Cody Balmer, has “admitted to harboring hatred” toward Shapiro, who’s Jewish, according to a police affidavit. Police obtained warrants to search Balmer’s writings or notes for any references to “the name of Josh Shapiro (or a) reference to Palestine, Gaza, Israel or the current conflict in Gaza.”
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday, Schumer said the incident “warrants immediate and serious federal scrutiny.”
“I appreciate your strong condemnation of the attack and urge you to ensure that the federal government does everything in its power to pursue justice and uphold the fundamental values of religious freedom and public safety,” wrote Schumer, who’s the highest-ranked Jewish official in the U.S.
Paris is hosting the series of talks Thursday about Ukraine and its security, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, French President Emmanuel Macron and top Ukrainian and European officials.
Rubio and Witkoff were having lunch discussions with Macron and “talks with European counterparts to advance President Trump’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
The meetings come as concerns grow about Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russia, and after weeks of U.S. efforts to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine. There’s also frustration over the Trump administration’s other moves, from tariffs on some of its closest partners to rhetoric about NATO and Greenland.
▶ Read more about the talks on Ukraine
At 12 p.m. ET, the president will greet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, according to the White House schedule for Thursday. The pair are scheduled to participate in a bilateral lunch followed by a meeting in the Oval Office, where they may speak to the White House Press Pool.
Meloni is the first European leader to have a face-to-face with Trump since he announced, and then suspended, 20% tariffs on European exports. Meloni secured the meeting at a critical juncture in the trade war as Italy’s leader, but she also has, in a sense, been “knighted” to represent the European Union. She’s been in close contact with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ahead of the trip, and “the outreach is … closely coordinated,” a commission spokesperson said this week.
At 4:00 p.m. ET, Trump is scheduled to sign executive orders.
The judge will hear arguments Thursday in three cases from national Democrats and voting rights groups that are challenging President Trump’s recent executive order on elections, which, among other changes, would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
The Democratic National Committee, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters Education Fund and others are seeking to block Trump’s sweeping overhaul of federal election processes, alleging the changes he wants are unconstitutional.
The Republican president’s executive order says the U.S. has failed “to enforce basic and necessary election protections” and calls on states to work with federal agencies to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes. It threatens to pull federal funding from states where election officials don’t comply.
▶ Read more about Trump’s executive order on elections
Trump hinted at moving to fire Powell, whose term doesn’t expire until next year, as he reiterated his frustration that the Fed hasn’t aggressively cut interest rates.
The president’s broadside comes a day after Powell said in a speech that Trump’s broad-based tariffs have left the Federal Reserve seeking “greater clarity” on the impact of policy changes in areas such as immigration, taxation, regulation, and tariffs before making potential cuts.
“Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS,” Trump said in a social media post. He added that Powell “should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”
Powell was initially nominated by Trump in 2017, and appointed to another four-year term by President Joe Biden in 2022. At a November new conference, Powell indicated he would not step down if Trump asked him to resign. He has also said the removal or demotion of top Fed officials was “not permitted under the law.”
The Trump administration issued an order Wednesday to stop construction on a major offshore wind project to power more than 500,000 New York homes, the latest in a series of moves targeting the industry.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction on Empire Wind, a fully-permitted project. He said it needs further review because it appears the Biden administration rushed the approval.
Trump has been hostile to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind. His first day in office, Trump signed an executive order temporarily halting offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and pausing the issuance of approvals, permits and loans for all wind projects. Last month, the administration revoked the Clean Air Permit for an offshore wind project off the coast of New Jersey, Atlantic Shores. Construction on that wind farm had not yet begun.
▶ Read more about Trump’s pause on the project
Trump on Wednesday inserted himself directly into trade talks with Japanese officials, a sign of the high stakes for the United States after its tariffs rattled the economy and caused the administration to assure the public that it would quickly reach deals.
The Republican president attended the meeting alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, top economic advisers with a central role in his trade and tariff policies.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters Thursday in Tokyo that his chief trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, told him from Washington that the talks were “very candid and constructive.”
Ishiba said he will closely watch how ministerial talks go and plans to visit Washington to meet with Trump at an appropriate time.
Trump’s choice to get directly involved in negotiations points to his desire to quickly finalize a slew of trade deals as China is pursuing its own set of agreements.
▶ Read more about trade talks with Japan
A federal judge says he won’t dismiss a lawsuit from labor unions seeking to block Elon Musk’s team from accessing systems at the Labor Department.
The labor unions say that allowing Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access the systems violates the federal Privacy Act because they contain medical and financial records of millions of Americans. They also contend DOGE doesn’t have the legal authority to direct the actions of congressionally created agencies like the Department of Labor.
In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Bates said those claims could move forward in court. But some other, more specific arguments made by the unions — including that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department violated health care privacy laws by allowing DOGE access — were dismissed by the judge.
The federal Privacy Act generally prohibits an agency from disclosing records about a person to another agency, unless the person has first given written permission.
▶ Read more about the ruling
A 30-year-old community service program that sends young adults to work on projects across the U.S. was the latest target of the Trump administration ’s campaign to slash government spending.
AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps informed volunteers Tuesday that they would exit the program early “due to programmatic circumstances beyond your control,” according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.
The unsigned memo to corps members said NCCC’s “ability to sustain program operations” was impacted by the Trump administration’s priorities and Trump’s executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency. Members would be officially dismissed April 30.
More than 2,000 people ages 18 to 26 serve for nearly a year, according to the program’s website, and get assigned to projects with nonprofits and community organizations or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It celebrated its 30th year last year.
The organization said on social media last month that teams have served 8 million service hours on nearly 3,400 disaster projects since 1999.
▶ Read more about DOGE cuts to AmeriCorps
President Donald Trump speaks during the Commander-in-Chief trophy presentation to the Navy Midshipman football team in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks during the Commander-in-Chief trophy presentation to the Navy Midshipman football team in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
