US Executes Third Person with New Nitrogen Gas Method in Alabama

In a highly anticipated and contentious execution, 50-year-old Carey Dale Grayson was slated to become the third person executed in the US by nitrogen gas on Thursday evening at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in southern Alabama.

Grayson, one of four teenagers convicted of murdering 37-year-old hitchhiker Vickie Deblieux in 1994, will be put to death as part of a new execution method introduced by Alabama this year. The method involves using nitrogen gas to displace breathable air, causing death by lack of oxygen. Alabama maintains that the method is constitutional, but critics argue that it requires more scrutiny, particularly after the first two executions by this method resulted in prolonged periods of shakiness.

Deblieux's mutilated body was found at the bottom of a bluff near Odenville, Alabama, on February 26, 1994. Prosecutors said she was attacked and beaten by four teenagers, who then threw her off a cliff and later returned to mutilate her body. Grayson is the only convict among the four teens facing execution, while two others initially received death sentences but had them commuted due to their age at the time of the crime.

Grayson's final appeals focused on concerns over the new execution method, arguing that it causes "conscious suffocation" and questioning whether the first two executions resulted in swift unconsciousness and death as promised. Attorneys asked for a stay of execution to allow the US Supreme Court to weigh the constitutionality of the method.

In contrast, lawyers for the Alabama attorney general's office argued that the new protocol has been successfully used twice, with deaths occurring within minutes each time. The US Supreme Court will have to determine whether this method is valid and suitable for repeated use in states adopting it.

This development marks a significant shift in the US execution landscape, following a 40-year hiatus since lethal injection was introduced in 1982. It follows international outcry over the first two nitrogen executions in Alabama, which resulted in protracted periods of shakiness from the condemned individuals.