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 Thursday evening at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in south Alabama. Alabama recently introduced the use of nitrogen gas as a new execution method, replacing lethal injection which was first used in 1982. The method involves placing a respirator gas mask over the person’s face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen.
