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Emergency application · Capital case

Execution by nitrogen gas

Jessie Hoffman v. Gary Westcott, Secretary, Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections

Denied
No. 24A893Stay applicationFiled by a prisoner facing executionPresented to Justice AlitoFrom United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

What did the Court do?

The Court denied the request on March 18, 2025 and refused to halt the execution.

Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, Justice Jackson, and Justice Gorsuch would have ruled the other way.

Filed Ruled 2 days after filing

What's being asked

Death-row prisoner Jessie Hoffman asks the Court to pause his execution (grant a stay) while it considers his petition for Supreme Court review. He argues Louisiana's planned nitrogen-gas execution would interfere with his Buddhist meditative breathing and violate his religious rights.

What the Court did

The Court refused to pause Hoffman's execution, denying his request for a stay (a temporary pause). This order does not decide his underlying challenge to Louisiana's execution method. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson would have granted the pause; Justice Gorsuch dissented (disagreed with the result).

  • Dissented
  • Vote not published
Dissenting · 4recorded against the Court's order
  1. Sotomayorwould grant
  2. Kaganwould grant
  3. Gorsuch
  4. Jacksonwould grant
Vote not published · 5the order does not say how they voted
  1. Roberts
  2. Thomas
  3. Alito
  4. Kavanaugh
  5. Barrett
The order records the positions of 4 of 9 justices. The Court usually does not say how each justice voted on an emergency application, so the rest are shown as not published.
Half of 89 rulings on capital applications decided without a response came 2 to 5 days after filing, and the median was 3 days; this one was ruled on 2 days after filing.

What it means

The Court's emergency ruling addresses only Hoffman's request for a temporary pause; it does not decide who wins his challenge to Louisiana's execution method. The Fifth Circuit's judgment remains in place; no related case or argument date is listed on this docket.

Sources

Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 24A893. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.

Checked October 3, 2026