An Alabama prisoner convicted of the 1994 murder of a female hitchhiker is set to become the third person executed by nitrogen gas. Carey Dale Grayson, 50, was one of four teenagers convicted of killing Vickie Deblieux, 37, who was hitchhiking through Alabama on her way to her mother’s home in Louisiana. Grayson is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Thursday at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in south Alabama.
Alabama recently introduced the use of nitrogen gas as a method of execution, marking the first new execution method in the United States since lethal injection was introduced in 1982. The process involves placing a respirator gas mask over the person’s face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, leading to death by lack of oxygen.
While Alabama asserts the constitutionality of this method, critics have raised concerns, particularly after the first two nitrogen executions resulted in the individuals shaking for several minutes. There are calls for further scrutiny, especially if other states consider adopting this new execution method.
Deblieux’s body was discovered at the bottom of a bluff near Odenville, Alabama, in 1994. Prosecutors revealed that she was hitchhiking from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to her mother’s home in West Monroe, Louisiana, when she accepted a ride from four teens. The teens later attacked and beat her in a wooded area, ultimately throwing her off a cliff and returning to mutilate her body.
Grayson is the only one of the four teens facing a death sentence due to his age at the time of the crime. While two of the teens initially received death sentences, these were overturned following a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the execution of offenders under 18 at the time of their crimes. Another teen involved in the killing was sentenced to life in prison.
Grayson’s final appeals have centered on the need for more scrutiny of the new execution method. His attorneys argue that the process leads to “conscious suffocation” and point to the delayed deaths in the first two nitrogen executions. They have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution to assess the method’s constitutionality.
On the other hand, lawyers representing the Alabama attorney general’s office have urged the Supreme Court to allow the execution to proceed, citing a lower court’s dismissal of Grayson’s claims as speculative. They maintain that Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol has been effective in previous executions, resulting in death within minutes.
