Alabama Executes Man Using Nitrogen Gas for 1994 Hitchhiker’s Killing

Alabama Killer
Image Credits: CNN

In a historic yet controversial execution, Alabama put Carey Dale Grayson to death on Thursday evening using nitrogen gas, marking the nation’s third such execution. Grayson, 50, was convicted for his role in the brutal 1994 killing of Vickie Deblieux, a 37-year-old hitchhiker traveling through Alabama.

A New Execution Method and a Dark History

Grayson’s execution at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore followed a grisly crime that shocked the state. In 1994, Grayson and three other teens offered Deblieux a ride while she was hitchhiking from Chattanooga to her mother’s home in Louisiana. The group took her to a remote area, where they assaulted, beat, and eventually threw her off a cliff. Her mutilated body was discovered weeks later.

While the other teens were either under 18 or sentenced to life, Grayson, 19 at the time, faced the death penalty. The Supreme Court had banned the execution of minors, which led to his being the only one among the group to be sentenced to death. His attorneys argued that the use of nitrogen gas as an execution method required more scrutiny, citing concerns over its safety and the potential for “conscious suffocation.” Despite these objections, the US Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed.

Alabama introduced nitrogen gas as a new method of execution earlier this year, a process that replaces breathable air with pure nitrogen, causing death by lack of oxygen. While Alabama maintains the method is constitutional, critics point to the shaky results of earlier executions, where individuals showed signs of distress, raising alarms about its humaneness.

Grayson’s execution raises larger questions about the future of the death penalty in the US and the methods used to carry it out.