Carey Dale Grayson, convicted of murdering a hitchhiker in 1994, was executed in Alabama on Thursday afternoon. As the American media emphasize, he was the third person so far to be executed by asphyxiation with nitrogen.
The execution was carried out in the prison. William C. Holman in Atmore, Alabama. At 6:33 p.m. local time on Thursday, the convict was pronounced dead. For the third time this year, the state used nitrogen asphyxiation to execute the death penalty instead of giving the convict an injection. As CNN writes, this method involves placing a special gas mask on a person's face and replacing the air with pure nitrogen, thereby causing death due to lack of oxygen. The station reports that the execution was carried out a few hours after Supreme Court The US rejected Grayson's request to stay the execution of the sentence.
“USA Today” writes that in his last words, the man convicted of brutal murder did not speak to the victims' family or his loved ones – which is common before the execution of the sentence – but cursed and showed the middle finger.
Brutal murder of a hitchhiker
According to a statement by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, the murder for which Grayson was convicted occurred on February 21, 1994. Vickie Deblieux, 37, wanted to hitchhike to her mother's house in Louisiana. A car stopped at the Trussville exit in Jefferson County, Alabama, with four teenagers in it, including Carey Grayson (he was 19 at the time).
As the prosecutor writes, the young people drank alcohol and took drugs. They offered to take the woman to Louisiana. Instead, they took her to the forest. There they got out of the car and started drinking again. When the woman tried to escape, she was first pelted with bottles, and then the teenagers knocked her to the ground and started kicking her. Marshall's statement describes graphic details of the murder and then the abuse of the corpse, taking it to the mountains and throwing it down the slope. “The next morning, Grayson's girlfriend found the three teenagers sleeping in the pickup truck, covered in mud and blood. (Grayson) told her it was dog blood,” it said.
Vickie Deblieux's body was found on February 26, 1994 by three climbers. The medical examiner found that almost every bone in her skull was broken and that she had been inflicted with 180 wounds after her death. The suspects were arrested when one of the teenagers boasted to a friend about the 37-year-old's severed finger.
“During the trial in January and February 1996, Carey Grayson was convicted of aggravated murder. The jury unanimously recommended the death penalty,” the prosecutor's office writes. “USA Today” reminds that the three other defendants in the trial also received death sentences, but they were commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole because they were under 18 at the time of committing the crime.
The victim's daughter condemns the death penalty
Jodi Deblieux Haley was 12 years old when her mother was murdered. After the execution, she talked during a press conference about what a special person she was. “I don't know what it's like to have a mother, going through life. Graduation, marriage, children, my sufferings and joys. I had to experience life without her presence because all these opportunities were stolen from her,” she was quoted as saying by USA Today.
However, as the newspaper's website writes, although the loss of her mother destroyed her life, she did not put the entire blame on Grayson, pointing out that he was a victim of serious mental and sexual abuse during his childhood. She is also an opponent of the death penalty and, as she stated, “the murder of prisoners under the guise of justice must end.”
Third execution with nitrogen
This is the 22nd execution carried out this year in the United States and the sixth in Alabama. According to the prosecutor's office, the convict himself wanted to change the method of execution from poison administered by injection to asphyxiation with nitrogen. In Alabama, two death sentences were previously executed this way. Both this year.
The first person executed by nitrogen asphyxiation was Kenneth Eugene Smithin January. As we wrote, he was also the first convict in the world to whom this method of execution was used. Earlier, despite the controversy, the Supreme Court in Alabama agreed to it.
Main photo source: Shutterstock