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Thread: Jessie D. Hoffman - Louisiana Death Row

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    Jessie D. Hoffman - Louisiana Death Row

    Facts of the Crime:

    Convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 for kidnapping, raping and fatally shooting Mary "Molly" Elliott, 28, of Covington, on November 27, 1996.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 10, 2009, Hoffman filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/lou...v03041/132381/

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    On March 29, 2012, Federal District Court Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle denied Hoffman's habeas petition. She also upheld the constitutionality of Louisiana's lethal-injection protocol.

    http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal...041/132381/70/

    On August 9, 2012, Hoffman filed an appeal in the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir.../ca5/12-70022/

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    Judge rules Angola officials must submit execution plans

    Officials of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola must surrender the details of their plans to execute two convicted murderers, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in Baton Rouge.

    Prison officials “shall provide the protocols to the (death row inmates) within 14 days,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Riedlinger wrote as he rejected motions by state attorneys for a protective order that would have kept that information secret from the public.

    Riedlinger added that state officials “have not shown good cause for the court to issue the protective order they sought.” The judge also said state officials failed to provide “even one example of improper interference with an execution caused by or related to the dissemination of the current or any previous Louisiana execution protocol.”

    On May 15, Jacqueline B. Wilson, an attorney representing the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, told Riedlinger public dissemination of execution details would place “the entire process at risk of manipulation.”

    Added Wilson: “This would place not only the offender scheduled to die in danger, but also the other inmates on the premises, the employees at Angola, and the third parties present for the execution.”

    Michael D. Rubenstein, an attorney for death row inmate Jessie Hoffman, countered Monday that neither Hoffman nor condemned killer Christopher Sepulvado know anything “about the method by which (prison officials) seek to kill them.”

    Both the public and the inmates should know how Louisiana’s lethal drugs are “refrigerated and/or stored,” Rubenstein told Riedlinger.

    Prison officials argue public disclosure of execution details “would place the individual (they) plan to kill ‘in danger,’” Rubenstein noted. “But the real danger to condemned inmates is the risk of being executed pursuant to an undisclosed and unevaluated procedure potentially involving expired drugs.”

    Hoffman, 34, does not yet have an execution date, but he argued in January that the state’s cocktail of lethal injection drugs possibly could subject him to an excruciatingly painful death.

    Hoffman, of New Orleans, is on death row for the 1996 kidnap, robbery, rape and murder of 28-year-old advertising executive Mary “Molly” Elliot.

    Sepulvado, 69, of DeSoto Parish, was sentenced to death for the 1992 beating and scalding murder of his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer.

    Gary P. Clements, attorney for Sepulvado, won a court-ordered stay of his client’s scheduled February execution by joining Hoffman’s attorneys in arguing that information was needed from prison officials about the chemicals they would use to kill both inmates.

    U.S. District Judge James J. Brady issued an order in February that blocks executions in Louisiana until after prison officials provide requested details of the lethal-injection process it will use for its new drug, pentobarbital.

    Prison officials could ask Brady to overrule Riedlinger’s order to release their execution protocol within two weeks.

    Already pending at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is a request by prison officials for reversal of Brady’s stay of Sepulvado’s execution.

    “The overwhelming medical evidence by experts from both sides is that using a single dose of pentobarbital is more humane than the three-drug combination” formerly used for executions in Louisiana, Wilson told the appellate panel in the request filed May 30.

    http://theadvocate.com/news/6164107-...officials-must
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Louisiana releases execution protocol; inmate's lawyer calls it 'inadequate'

    By Lauren McGaughy
    The Times Picayune

    Louisiana corrections officials have released the state's execution protocol after a lawsuit brought by two death row inmates called for more transparency into the procedure. But the inmates' lawyers say details released by the state are spotty at best, and that the use of a new lethal drug is not fully explained.

    Until this month, the state's execution protocol was inaccessible by the public, including inmates and their attorneys. The protocol, obtained by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on Friday, was released after two death row inmates filed suit against the state Corrections Department and Louisiana State Penitentiary, or Angola, to make public the documents.

    But, Michael Rubenstein, lawyer for inmate Jessie Hoffman, said the nearly 60-page document he received last week is "woefully inadequate." While it confirms previous court admissions that the state plans to switch to using a single drug in its lethal injections, it leaves out important details, he said.

    "The lethal injection protocol released by the Louisiana Department of Corrections this week fails to provide the most basic information about how it intends to carry out executions," Rubenstein said Friday.

    He pointed to gaps in how lethal drugs will be stored, overseen and administered, and who will have ultimate responsibility over the drugs. He also expressed concerns about the state's decision to switch from a three-drug cocktail to just one drug.

    "We still do not know whether any medical authorities were consulted regarding the incorporation of (pentobarbital); the original source or expiration date of the new drug; how the drug is to be administered; or the training of personnel who will implement the new procedure for the first time," Rubenstein said.

    Pentobarbital is a drug primarily used to treat seizures and insomnia. In large doses -- such as the 5 grams administered during execution -- the drug is lethal. Formerly, it was used primarily in euthanizing animals.

    When pentobarbital first began being used in cases of capital punishment, in Oklahoma in 2010, inmate advocacy groups expressed concerns with it being largely untested in large doses. Ohio was the first state to use it alone in March 2011, triggering an outcry from advocates.

    Louisiana has not yet used the single-drug formula. The last inmate to be executed in the state was in 2010, when the three-drug cocktail was still in use. The state decided to make the switch after supplies of sodium thiopental -- the starter drug in the cocktail -- began to run out.

    While Hoffman's execution is not yet scheduled, the other plaintiff in the case, Christopher Sepulvado, was scheduled to be executed on Ash Wednesday this year. But after he joined Hoffman's suit, the court ordered the state to delay his execution until the protocol was released.

    It is unclear whether the state will proceed with Sepulvado's execution now that the protocol has been released. Part of the attorneys' argument was based on concerns about the use of pentobarbital, its three-year expiration date, and who would be monitoring its storage -- three pieces of information not fully elucidated in the execution protocol.

    Pam LaBorde, public information officer for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, would not comment on the case Friday, citing "pending death penalty-related issues before the courts."

    In response, Rubenstein said he and his colleagues will "engage in a robust discovery process to uncover the truth" that begins with additional interrogations and documents requests.

    Hoffman was sentenced to death for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and killing of Mary "Molly" Elliott, an advertising executive in St. Tammany Parish. Sepulvado was convicted of the beating and fatal scalding of his 6-year-old stepson in Mansfield in 1992.

    http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/...rotocol_l.html

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    Sepulvado [and Jessie Hoffman] seeks sanctions against state DOC

    By Vickie Welborn
    The Shreveport Times

    Attorneys representing death row inmates Christopher Sepulvado and Jessie Hoffman on Tuesday asked a Baton Rouge-based federal court judge to impose sanctions on the governor and state corrections officials for failure to produce documents related to the execution protocol.

    Additionally, Sepulvado’s attorney added to Monday’s motion for a stay of next week’s scheduled execution of Sepulvado because of the late day change by the Louisiana Department of Corrections adding the option of moving from a one- to two-drug lethal injection cocktail. Attorneys said the use of midazolam and hydromorphone — the same drugs used in the execution of an Ohio man earlier this month — pose a “substantial risk of serious harm” for Sepulvado.

    DOC spokeswoman Pam Laborde on Tuesday confirmed those are the same two drugs added to the revamped execution protocol. Changes were made because of the state’s inability to procure the single drug, pentobarbital, originally scheduled for use in Louisiana executions.

    Sepulvado is scheduled to die Feb. 5 for the March 8, 1992, death of his stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer, 6, of Mansfield, who was beat in the head with a screwdriver then immersed in a bathtub of scalding water. Hoffman, who does not have an execution date set, was sentenced to death for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of Mary Elliott in St. Tammany Parish.

    Hoffman was the first to file a legal challenge to the execution protocol. A federal court last year allowed Sepulvado to intervene. This month, three more death row inmates, including serial killer Nathaniel Code, of Shreveport, filed court petitions asking to be included.

    Attorney Gary Clements, who is among the team representing Sepulvado and Hoffman, contends the state’s change in the execution process “dramatically” affects Sepulvado’s rights and exposes him to constitutional violations. The two drugs used in the Jan. 16 execution of Dennis McGuire drew strong criticism because of reports of the prolonged time it took for him to die. McGuire reportedly gasped for air for 10 to 13 minutes during the 25-minute execution procedure.

    In Tuesday’s filing, attorneys also raise the issue of a lack of time for training the execution team given the short notice for the protocol change.

    As for the sanctions sought against the state, the motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana alleges the governor and corrections officials failed to produce complete responses by Friday’s deadline set by a federal magistrate judge. The documents relate to the state’s execution protocol.

    Emails handed over by the state to Sepulvado’s defense team indicate off-and-on discussions over recent years by DOC officials about the protocol and lack of drug availability. In a June email to DOC general counsel William Kline, DOC Secretary James LeBlanc states, “I have some issues with the protocol and want to discuss them.” He asks that a meeting be set up with others, but there is no additional document to prove that meeting took place.

    In a June 2012, DOC Deputy Secretary Genie Powers tells Elayn Hunt Correctional Center Warden Seth Smith that research was underway into what other states are doing, particularly Missouri, with the one-drug pentobarbital. The communication further notes LeBlanc wanted to update the governor on the “drug situation as there are a lot of offenders on death row with the potential of more (death) warrants being ordered.”

    Additional emails also raise questions about any involvement of Neal Nicol, a man once associated with the late assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian. Neal wrote to LeBlanc in Jan. 15, 2011, offering an “alternate method” of lethal injection because of the problems in securing the necessary drugs.

    Sheryl M. Ranatza, DOC deputy secretary, emailed Smith on Jan. 31, 2011, saying LeBlanc asked “we check this out and advise” in response to Nicol’s email. Handwritten at the bottom of another email is a reference to Nicol’s association with Kevorkian for 30 years, along with two propositions, one of which noted “contract out executions” and the other “carbon monoxide.”

    http://www.shreveporttimes.com/artic...inst-state-DOC

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    Supreme Court of Louisiana.
    STATE of Louisiana v. Jessie D. HOFFMAN.
    No. 98-KA-3118.
    -- April 11, 2000

    On January 8, 1997, a St. Tammany Parish grand jury indicted the defendant Jessie D. Hoffman, for the first degree murder of Mary “Molly” Elliot, a violation of La.Rev.Stat. 14:30.   A jury later found the defendant guilty as charged and, after a sentencing hearing, unanimously recommended a sentence of death.   Aggravating circumstances found by the jury included that:  the offender was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an aggravated kidnapping, armed robbery and aggravated rape;  and the offense was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner.  La.Code Crim. Proc. art. 905.4 A(1) & (7).   The defendant now appeals his conviction and sentence, raising eighteen assignments of error.

    FACTS

    On November 28, 1996, Thanksgiving Day, a duck hunter discovered the nude body of a young woman on a makeshift dock by the Middle Pearl River in St. Tammany Parish.   The victim had been shot in the head with a single bullet.   Later that day, the victim's body was identified by her husband, who reported her missing the previous evening when she failed to meet him for dinner after work.   The victim, an account executive with Peter Mayer Advertising, was last seen leaving her Camp Street office in downtown New Orleans on Wednesday, November 27, 1996.

    That same evening, November 27, 1996, a couple in New Orleans East found clothing and other items belonging to the victim in a vacant lot, and turned them over to the police.   Among the items found were three ATM receipts which the police traced to a Regions Bank in eastern New Orleans.   Time-lapse videotaped footage of the ATM area recorded the victim  withdrawing money while standing next to an African-American male wearing a jacket with the word “VALET” on it.

    Investigating officers from St. Tammany Parish and Orleans Parish went to the Sheraton parking garage in downtown New Orleans where the victim routinely parked her car.   The employees of this parking garage wore jackets similar to the one seen in the ATM video.   According to the parking garage managers, an employee, Jessie Hoffman, was on break during the time period under investigation.   The police subsequently arrested the defendant and took him to headquarters for questioning.   When the police asked the defendant his whereabouts during the relevant time period, he first indicated he left work and took a bus to New Orleans East so that he could deliver medicine to his girlfriend.   After the investigating officers voiced suspicions about this story, he stated that two armed African-American males forced him into their car.   Upon entering the car, he noticed a white female in the back with a towel over her head.   The men drove them to an ATM and forced the woman to withdraw money while the defendant stood next to her.   After driving a long distance, the men stopped the car near a bridge and told the defendant to “F* * * this b* * * * or I'll kill you and your girlfriend, Roshana.”   He admitted to having sex with the female who, according to the defendant, was then let out of the car.

    The defendant later changed his story and indicated that after they had sex, one of the men armed with a gun walked off with the female.   Although the defendant claimed he never heard gunshots, the man came back alone.   After the two men dropped the defendant off, he took a bus back to work.   Upon further questioning, the defendant made his final videotaped statement in which he admitted that he had kidnapped, robbed, had sex with, and shot the victim during a struggle over the gun.

    Evidence introduced at trial showed that Jessie Hoffman kidnaped Ms. Elliot at gunpoint, in her own car, as she was leaving the Sheraton parking garage after a long day at work.   Hoffman then forced Ms. Elliot, at gunpoint, to drive to an ATM machine to withdraw money from her account so that he could rob her.   The ATM video tape shows the terror on Ms. Elliot's face as she withdrew money from her account, and Hoffman can be seen standing next to his victim.   Two hundred dollars were withdrawn from the ATM, and a statement from Hoffman's girlfriend indicated that she and Hoffman went shopping soon thereafter, and that Hoffman paid cash for several items.

    Hoffman did not leave Ms. Elliot at the ATM machine after he had already caused the most horrific night of her life, by both kidnaping and robbing her at gunpoint.   Instead, he forced her, still at gunpoint, to drive with him to a remote area of St. Tammany Parish.   Ms. Elliot often begged Hoffman not to hurt her, and he answered that he would not because she was cooperating.    Hoffman even said that Ms. Elliot “offered herself” while begging him not to hurt her.   Hoffman, still armed with a handgun, then had sexual intercourse with his victim at a secluded, desolate area of St. Tammany Parish where he had forced her to drive.   The jury did not believe Hoffman's contention, that the sex he had with Ms. Elliot, while Hoffman was armed with a handgun, in the back of Ms. Elliot's own car, was consensual, and found aggravated rape as an aggravating circumstance.

    Even after kidnaping, robbing, and raping Ms. Elliot, all of which were done at gunpoint, Hoffman did not allow her to leave.   Instead, he forced her, still at gunpoint, while she was still completely nude subsequent to her rape, to get out of her car and march down a dirt path which was overgrown with vegetation and in an area full of trash used as a dump.   Her death march ultimately ended at a small, makeshift dock at the end of this path, where she was forced to kneel and shot in the head, execution style.   Ms. Elliot likely survived for a few minutes after being shot, but she was left on the dock, completely nude on a cold November evening, to die.

    After kidnaping, robbing, raping, and shooting Ms. Elliot, Hoffman disposed of her belongings and his gun, then returned to work.   Hoffman's “lunch hour,” as he told his managers he would be taking, lasted approximately two and one-half hours.

    At trial, the State presented DNA and serological evidence linking the defendant to the crime, along with Hoffman's videotaped statement.   Although the defense never contested the defendant shot the victim, the defense introduced the testimony of one witness, Dr. Friedman, who contested the validity of the DNA results.   The defense's main argument at the guilt phase focused on rebutting evidence of specific intent to kill by relying on the defendant's videotaped statement in which he explained the gun accidentally firing during a struggle with the victim.

    The jury convicted the defendant of first degree murder.   The following day, the trial court conducted the capital sentencing hearing.   The State first reintroduced all its evidence from the guilt phase.   Next, the State called the victim's husband and mother to testify regarding victim impact evidence.

    The defense presented testimony from eleven witnesses, including family members and friends, a clinical psychologist, and an expert in executive clemency and corrections.

    Following the penalty phase, the jury returned with a recommendation of death after finding all the aggravating circumstances advanced by the State.   The trial court formally sentenced the defendant to death by lethal injection on September 11, 1998.   The defendant now appeals his conviction and sentence, urging eighteen assignments of error.

    http://caselaw.findlaw.com/la-suprem...t/1211923.html

  8. #8
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    Louisiana judge orders state release information on lethal injection drugs

    By Lauren McGaughy
    The Times Picayune

    Louisiana corrections officials must reveal the manufacturer and source of the state's lethal injection drugs within the week, a federal judge ordered Wednesday (March 5).

    U.S. District Judge James J. Brady also ordered the names of the staff and healthcare professionals involved in executions must be released. But this can be done under seal to protect their identities, Brady's ruling added.

    The ruling was the latest development in a legal fight dating to 2012 between two death row inmates and the state over its execution policy. The suit, brought by convicted killers Jessie Hoffman and Christopher Sepulvado, was filed in December 2012 with the ultimate purpose of unsealing documents pertaining to the nature and place of origin of the state's lethal injection drugs as well as who has control over their management.

    The lawsuit resulted in the state releasing its execution protocol in June 2013. But Hoffman's lawyer Michael Rubenstein called the information "inadequate" because it did not include the names of the manufacturer or the prison personnel handling the drugs.

    The state then confirmed that authorities at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola were changing the drug mixture from a one-drug cocktail of pentobarbital to a two-drug combination just days before Sepulvado's scheduled execution last month. While the state planned to go forward with the execution, it later delayed the event for 90 days.

    Barbiturates and other drugs used for executions are becoming rare commodities for corrections officials across the United States, as European drug manufacturers block their sale for use to put someone to death. A small number of specialty pharmacies manufacture generic versions of the drugs as well, but have come under fire for not being properly authorized to do so out-of-state and for their secrecy.

    Louisiana switched from pentobarbital because it became too difficult to locate the drug, corrections officials said. They later argued for keeping secret the manufacturer of the new two-drug mixture for fear the company or pharmacy would be pressured into stopping sale of the drugs. Now, state lawmakers are trying to circumvent the drug shortage by resurrecting the use of the electric chair in Louisiana.

    The same two drugs were used in the execution of Ohio killer Dennis McGuire, who appeared to gasp and writhe during during the 25-minutes it took him to die after being administered the drugs midazolam and hyrdomorphone. McGuire's family has filed suit, claiming the execution amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and adding the drugs were illegally used to put him to death.

    Sepulvado was convicted of the 1992 murder of his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer, in Mansfield. Court records show he beat the boy and stabbed him with a screwdriver before dunking him in a scalding hot bath. Hoffman was sentenced to death for the 1996 kidnapping, rape and killing of Mary "Molly" Elliott, an advertising executive in St. Tammany Parish.

    Sepulvado's execution would be the first for Louisiana since 2010, when Gerald Bordelon was put to death for the 2002 rape and murder of his 12-year-old stepdaughter.

    http://www.nola.com/crime/baton-roug..._death_pe.html

  9. #9
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    State appeals judge’s order to reveal source of lethal injection drug

    By Della Hasselle
    The Lens

    Lawyers for the state Department of Corrections haven’t complied with a federal judge’s order to disclose information about the source of Louisiana’s lethal injection drugs, instead asking an appeals court to reverse the decision.

    Lawyers representing a convicted child-killer on death row responded Tuesday, saying this “is simply the latest effort by the Defendants to shroud their lethal injection protocol in secrecy.”

    Last week, U.S. District Court Judge James Brady ordered the state to reveal the manufacturer and source of the lethal injection drugs that officials plan to use in execution.

    Earlier this year, shortly before Christopher Sepulvado was to be executed, the state changed its plan to allow for a mix of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone. The state wants to withhold information regarding the acquisition and administration of those drugs — just as it tried to do with a previous execution drug.

    “As the Plaintiffs have pointed out, this Court has twice denied similar attempts by the Defendants to protect information concerning the execution protocols,” Brady wrote in his order.

    He did grant some of the state’s requests for secrecy, including identities of those “directly and personally involved in the process of carrying out the execution,” but not those involved with making or testing the drugs. State law protects the identities of people directly and indirectly involved in executions.

    The deadline to produce the information was Monday. Instead, the state filed a motion to stay Brady’s order and a separate appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

    In its motion in Brady’s court, the state said his order to disclose the information was an “abuse of discretion.”

    Officials for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections have argued that individuals involved with manufacturing, testing or administering of the drugs could suffer harassment from death-penalty opponents. They wanted to reveal certain information — including the source of the drug, the lot number and the identities of people involved — only to people involved in the lawsuit.

    In Monday’s motion in Brady’s court, Department of Corrections lawyer James Hilburn added that the identity of the drug’s manufacturer doesn’t make a difference in the lawsuit because they don’t “render the end-product any worse or any better.”

    The drugs in question were used once before in what death penalty opponents call a botched execution. In Ohio, the mix of midazolam and hydromorphone reportedly caused convicted rapist and killer Dennis McGuire to gasp and snort before dying during his January execution.

    In late January, death-penalty opponents argued that an execution using those drugs could amount to “human experimentation.”

    The legal proceedings are part of a lawsuit filed by Sepulvado, who in 1993 was convicted of murder for killing his stepson by beating him with a screwdriver and submerging his body into scalding water, and by death-row inmate Jessie Hoffman, who was convicted of the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott.

    The innmates argue that they have a right to know exactly how the state intends to execute them, and that they have a right not to suffer a cruel or unusual death under the U.S. Constitution.

    Around the country, states are arguing for secrecy as they seek viable lethal injection drugs.

    In February, two days before Sepulvado was set to be executed with the new two-drug mix, a federal judge granted him a stay of execution to allow for a hearing to determine the constitutionality of the drugs.

    The hearing was set for April, but it’s since been pushed back to June so the state can revise its lethal injection protocol.

    http://thelensnola.org/2014/03/11/st...njection-drug/

  10. #10
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    Today, the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's denial of habeas relief for Hoffman:

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions...-70022-CV0.pdf

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