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justice system
The Final Hours of Jessie Hoffman, Murdered by the State of Louisiana
The killing of this man, said one of his lawyers, "has been in service of no one, but the bloodlust of our state government.”
Mar 20, 2025
Three hours before he was to be murdered by the State of Louisiana, Jessie Hoffman greeted me with a strong handshake and an embrace. He stared deep into my eyes and thanked me for coming. We discussed his son, also named Jessie, and how proud he has made his dad.
Also visiting were three of the many lawyers who had been fighting for his life, Cecelia Trenticosta Kappel of the Loyola Center for Social Justice, Samantha Bosalavage Pourciau of the Promise of Justice Initiative, and Sarah Ottinger, who had been representing Jessie Hoffman for 19 years. I was there to witness the murder of Mr. Hoffman if Louisiana reversed its course and allowed one of the legal team to remain through the whole process.
Already in the room when we arrived was Rev. Reimoku Gregory Smith, a Buddhist priest Hoffman chose to accompany him. Jessie is a practicing Buddhist and has been a leader among those in prison for decades. Reverend Reimoku was in long black robes. He was serene and almost glowing in kindness.
We sat around a big wooden conference table that had the logo of the State of Louisiana carved into the middle of it. Uniformed officers from the Louisiana State Penitentiary sat in opposite ends of the room. There were two big pictures on the walls—one of Elijah on a flaming chariot and one of Daniel in the lion’s den.
The room in which Louisiana planned to murder Jessie Hoffman was steps away.
The victim’s sister-in-law specifically asked Louisiana not to murder Jessie Hoffman, saying “Executing Jessie Hoffman is not justice in my name, it is the opposite.”
Jessie Hoffman is about six feet tall and muscular. He was wearing a black t-shirt that said Life Row in white letters on it—the name that its 50+ occupants prefer to call what the outside world calls death row. He has been fasting for days and mostly sits quietly with his arms on the wooden table, staring intently at whoever was talking to him.
Jessie was holding his favorite book, "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation" by Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master, author, poet, and peacemaker who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Jessie asked Reverend Reimoku to read his favorite passage from the book to us. It was called the Four Immeasurable Minds: Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity. He read and reflected as we took in these words together. Jessie occasionally closed his eyes.
Louisiana was scheduled to murder Jessie Hoffman by first immobilizing him by tying down his arms, hands, legs, and torso on a crucifix-like platform. Then, once he was helpless to resist, they would cover his face with an industrial-grade respirator and pump his lungs full of poison high-grade nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gas causes death by depriving the body of oxygen, essentially causing suffocation in a phenomenon known as hypoxia. This method is so horrible all but two states have stopped using nitrogen gas on animals declaring it inhumane. The United Nations Commissioner on Human Rights has condemned the use of nitrogen gas in executions saying its use could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment in violation of international human rights law.
Jessie Hoffman was to be murdered by Louisiana because he had as a teenager, after years of shocking physical, sexual and psychological abuse, committed a horrible murder in 1996.
Now the Louisiana Governor claimed it was necessary for the state to respond to this murder by itself murdering Jessie Hoffman to “prioritize victims over criminals.”
Yet the actual family members of the victim of Jessie’s murder were not asking Louisiana to murder him.
The victim’s sister-in-law specifically asked Louisiana not to murder Jessie Hoffman, saying “Executing Jessie Hoffman is not justice in my name, it is the opposite.”
The victim’s husband refused to attend the state execution and said he is now “indifferent to the death penalty vs life in prison without parole.” He also another reason for not attending was he was “just not really feeling like I need to watch another human being die."
Years before, Jessie Hoffman wrote a statement apologizing to the victims. Louisiana refused to deliver it to the family.
Jessie and the victim’s sister-in-law tried to talk by zoom so Jessie could apologize to her directly but Louisiana would not allow it.
As our visit continued, another long-time lawyer arrived. Caroline Tillman, who has been working to save Jessie Hoffman from state murder for 22 years, came directly from federal court in New Orleans. Teams of lawyers tried to stop the state murder of Jessie Hoffman, filing in several state and federal courts. Only the U.S. Supreme Court had not been heard from yet.
More prayers were said. The letter from the sister-in-law asking that the state murder not go forward was read aloud. More prayers. More than 250 faith leaders had recently signed letters asking Louisiana not to revive the practice of state murder with nitrogen gas.
With less than an hour to go before the scheduled murder of Jessie Hoffman, the Warden came in and politely but firmly terminated the lawyers’ visit. He refused permission to allow any lawyer to stay and witness the murder of Jessie Hoffman. Only Reverend Reimoku was allowed to remain.
After the lawyers were escorted out, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the murder of Mr. Hoffman by a vote of 5-4, one vote short of the 5 votes needed for a stay.
The murder of Jessie Hoffman by Louisiana could now begin.
John Simmerman, a journalist with Nola.com, was one of two media witnesses allowed to view the execution of Jessie Hoffman. He reports that at 6:21 pm the ultra-high-grade nitrogen was pumped into the immobilized Mr. Hoffman. His breathing became uneven. His chest rose. He made a jerking motion. His body shook. His fingers twitched. He pulled at the table. His hands clenched. His breathing slowed. His head moved inside the mask. He jerked slightly around 6:27 pm and stopped moving. Louisiana officials reported the poison gas was pumped into Jessie Hoffman for 19 minutes until he was pronounced dead. The last view of Jessie Hoffman with his face now uncovered showed “his head was tilted back, teeth exposed in a grimace.”
The murder of Jessie Hoffman by Louisiana was now complete.
Samantha Pourciau, who was with Jessie Hoffman on his final day on earth, said: “Tonight, while many in our state cannot afford groceries, the state used countless resources to kill one man. The governor cannot cloak this in fighting for victims, because today we learned that this is not, in fact, what this family wants. This is what the governor wants. This has been in service of no one, but the bloodlust of our state government.”Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Attacks the Right to a Lawyer
The presidential assault on the lawyers and law firms representing his litigation adversaries is an attack on the very foundation of the legal system.
Mar 12, 2025
In America’s legal system, both sides to a dispute are entitled to counsel. President Donald Trump rejects that premise because he prefers a one-sided battle that he is more likely to win.
To that end, he is using his special ability to combine vindictiveness with strategy. Wielding the power of the presidency, he is penalizing the attorneys who represent his opponents. Even more troubling, other lawyers are helping him undermine the foundation of our justice system.
Throughout his campaign, candidate Trump railed against his supposed “enemies.” In addition to prosecutors who pressed charges and judges who presided over cases against him, he promised “retribution” against private-sector lawyers who had represented his political adversaries. As president, he’s keeping that promise.
President Trump is not a lawyer, but he did swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Who will hold him to that promise?
The president’s first attack came in early February when he revoked the security clearances of Mark Zaid and Norm Eisen—outspoken Trump critics. For decades, Mr. Zaid has represented whistleblowers in Republican and Democratic administrations, including the whistleblower at the center of President Trump’s first impeachment. Mr. Eisen helped House Democrats develop the articles of impeachment. Because the president “flooded the zone” with tariffs, terminations, and tantrums, those suspensions received little news coverage.
His second blow landed on February 25, 2025, when he issued an executive order suspending the security clearances of all attorneys and employees at Covington & Burling—a premier 1,300-attorney global law firm representing former special counsel Jack Smith. During the campaign, he had threatened Smith repeatedly with deportation and worse. Smith retained Covington, which represented him pro bono before he resigned as special counsel. The firm is still his defense counsel.
The executive order prevents Smith’s attorneys from accessing important government materials and makes defending him more challenging. Perhaps more importantly, it was also a warning to other attorneys contemplating the representation of anyone the president does not like.
The third attack occurred with the executive order of March 6. He suspended the security clearances of individuals at Perkins Coie—a global law firm of more than 1,200 attorneys worldwide. Among other penalties, the president instructed the heads of all federal agencies to limit Perkins employees’ access to federal government buildings.
At their core, the executive orders are a transparent effort to intimidate other attorneys who represent the president’s adversaries. For example, his stated justifications for the Perkins suspension are nonsensical. He complains about work that two partners at the firm, Marc Elias and Michael Sussman, did on behalf of the Clinton campaign in 2016. But both lawyers left Perkins years ago. Trump’s order also criticizes the firm’s involvement in successful challenges to voter restriction laws in Republican-controlled states. And he even includes the firm’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as a reason for its suspension.
The presidential assault on the lawyers and law firms representing his litigation adversaries is an attack on the very foundation of the legal system. The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL)—an elite body of litigation attorneys—responded immediately to his executive orders:
Lawyers throughout the country should unite in condemning these actions in the strongest possible terms.
The White House’s retaliating against a law firm merely because it represented a client against whom the Executive Branch has a grievance, threatens the bedrock principles of our system of justice. Under those principles, everyone is entitled to legal representation. In criminal matters, that right is enshrined in the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution.
The ACTL’s statement outlined the broader consequences of the president’s assault:
Lawyers cannot be denied access to the courts nor should their advocacy be throttled merely because the government disagrees with the positions asserted or because litigants seek to enjoin Executive actions that may violate statutory and constitutional rights of a free people. When government retaliation is grounded in efforts to punish lawyers for the parties that they represent or the positions that they assert, our system of justice is undermined.
Likewise, speaking for the entire profession, the American Bar Association declared, “These government actions deny clients access to justice and betray our fundamental values.”
To become a licensed member of the bar, every attorney swears an oath to uphold the Constitution. Every attorney is bound by rules of ethical conduct requiring them to support the rule of law. Every attorney has an obligation to enhance public confidence in the legal system. Yet attorneys drafted, reviewed, and approved the executive orders that are undermining the bedrock principles of our justice system.
President Trump is not a lawyer, but he did swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Who will hold him to that promise? Asking for a friend of democracy.
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If Trump Doesn’t Change, Judge Merchan Will Have No Choice But to Lock Him Up
The key to obtaining leniency in criminal sentencing, even in cases where guilt is a close call, is to show respect for the system and the judge, and to demonstrate remorse, something Trump has failed to do.
Jun 14, 2024
The most important date on Donald Trump’s July calendar isn’t July 4, when the nation celebrates its independence. Nor is it July 15, when the Republican Party convenes its national convention to christen Trump as its official standard-bearer for 2024. The most consequential date is July 11, when Trump will appear for sentencing hearing before New York state judge Juan Merchan.
Merchan will be faced with the historic task of deciding whether a former president should be sent to prison after being found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a prosecution brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Once thought to be the weakest of the criminal actions taken against Trump, the case has succeeded beyond expectations in holding Trump to account for his history of skirting the law. But while millions of Americans will be rooting for Merchan to throw the proverbial book at Trump, Merchan’s sentencing decision will not be easy, legally or politically.
From a purely legal standpoint, Merchan’s decision will be one of first impression that will invite close scrutiny on appeal after a hotly contested six-week trial. The decision will also reverberate politically, exacerbating the country’s partisan divides, and strengthening Trump’s stranglehold on the GOP and the neofascist movement he leads.
The worst part of the entire process is not that a former president is now a convicted felon, but that he has convinced nearly half the country that the justice system is so thoroughly corrupt and rigged that the rule of law itself isn’t worth saving.
Under New York law, falsifying business records is ordinarily a misdemeanor. The offense is elevated to a class E (low-grade) felony when the falsification is undertaken for the purpose of committing or concealing an additional crime. The additional crime in Trump’s case is another New York statute that makes it an offense for two or more persons to conspire to influence the outcome of an election by “unlawful means.”
Trump’s co-conspirators include his one-time attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen; former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker; and Allen Weisselberg, the erstwhile chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. Together with Trump, they hatched a “catch and kill” scheme in August 2015 to prevent the publication of any stories unfavorable to Trump as he campaigned for president in the 2016 election. As part of the scheme, Cohen paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. The hush-money amounted to an illegal in-kind campaign contribution because it exceeded the 2016 limit of $2,700 placed on individual contributions by the Federal Election Campaign Act, and the contribution was never reported to federal regulators.
Given the jury’s unanimous verdict, Merchan will have several sentencing options. Each of the 34 counts carries a potential four-year prison term, with a maximum cap of 20 years. Merchan has the authority to impose any period of incarceration within the statutory maximum, but class E felonies carry no mandatory minimum sentences. Instead of sending Trump to jail or prison, Merchan will have the discretion to place Trump on formal probation, requiring him to report periodically to a probation officer, or grant him a “conditional discharge,” a type of sentence that sets conditions on his release but doesn’t involve in-person supervision. He could also sentence Trump to a term of home confinement or require him to perform some kind of community service plus a fine.
Although Merchan will make the final decision, Trump will play an active and possibly decisive role in determining his punishment. In a very real sense, depending on how he behaves before July 11, Trump will hold the keys to his own future prison cell.
Prior to pronouncing Trump’s sentence, Merchan will receive recommendations from the defense, the district attorney, and the city’s probation department. The probation department conducted a virtual interview with Trump from his Mar-a-Lago home on June 10, and in the coming weeks, it will prepare a pre-sentence report for Merchan’s review. As in other felony prosecutions, the report will focus on such items as the nature of the offense, Trump’s personal history, and his willingness to comply with the terms of probation.
At the sentencing hearing, Merchan will balance and weigh the mitigating factors that militate in favor of a light disposition against the aggravating factors that point to incarceration. As attorney Norm Eisen, who served as co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee in Trump’s first impeachment trial, has written, Merchan will begin with “the base line against which judges measure all sentences: how other defendants have been treated for similar offenses.”
Eisen’s research shows that since 2015, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has filed over 400 cases of felony falsification of business records. Only 1 in 10 convictions, however, has resulted in incarceration.
The infrequency of jail, along with Trump’s advanced age (he will be 78 at the time of sentencing); the absence of a prior criminal record; and his service as a former president will count as mitigating factors.
On the other side of the ledger, Trump has been found civilly liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll. In addition, he has been ordered to pay $364 million ($454 million with interest) in damages as a result of the massive business-fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James that concluded earlier this year. He also has violated the limited gag order Judge Merchan imposed on him 10 times, resulting in two findings of criminal contempt. Even more significantly, he has shown absolutely no remorse for his conduct, and has vowed to exact revenge on his political rivals should he be reelected.
On balance, the scales clearly tip against Trump. The key to obtaining leniency in criminal sentencing, even in cases where guilt is a close call, is to show respect for the system and the judge, and to demonstrate remorse. Aware of this cardinal rule, Trump’s lead lawyer Todd Blanche has obtained an order from Merchan permitting him to be present at any pre-sentence interviews to soften his client’s image and demeanor.
It is all but certain that Blanche’s efforts will fail. Trump, according to many mental-health professionals, is a “malignant narcissist” who suffers from a disorder marked by paranoia, narcissism, antisocial personality, and sadism. He is incapable of admitting fault, much less criminal responsibility.
If Trump remains true to form, Merchan will have no choice but to sentence him to jail at Rikers Island or prison at one of New York’s 41 state correctional facilities for men. The sentence will likely be stayed while Trump’s appeal plays out, but will be imposed if the appeal fails.
In the interim, Merchan can be expected to follow standard judicial practice in white-collar prosecutions and grant Trump bail on appeal, allowing him to run unfettered for reelection, and accelerate his unhinged attacks on the rule of law. The worst part of the entire process is not that a former president is now a convicted felon, but that he has convinced nearly half the country that the justice system is so thoroughly corrupt and rigged that the rule of law itself isn’t worth saving.
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