A Baton Rouge federal judge is weighing whether to allow the state of Louisiana to proceed with its first-ever execution by nitrogen suffocation.
Jessie Hoffman is scheduled to put to death on March 18 for the 1996 death of a St. Tammany Parish woman. Judge Shelley Dick is expected to rule quickly after hearing arguments on Friday.
However, one legal analyst doesn't expect the death sentence to be carried out on the scheduled date.
"I think that's highly unlikely," Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino said.
That's because, Ciolino says, this case will advance to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and, from there, the United States Supreme Court. According to Ciolino, this case has the trappings of becoming a landmark Supreme Court case.
"This really is a legal issue that's an open one that the Supreme Court has never considered in a full-length opinion," Ciolino said. "The plaintiffs here representing the criminal defendant are making their best case that this is a painful procedure. Their hope is that Judge Dick will find that, and the matter will then proceed to the Fifth Circuit and, ultimately, to the Supreme Court."
Ciolino notes that the Supreme Court failed to step in to stop similar executions in Alabama. Ciolino says this would be the first time the Supreme Court considers if nitrogen hypoxia violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
"There are a lot of open questions, and no doubt, both sides would like some guidance on that issue from the United States Supreme Court," Ciolino said.
