close
close
awsum

Carey Dale Grayson to be executed by gas in hitchhiker murder

Neon
Carey Dale Grayson to be executed by gas in hitchhiker murder

Carey Dale Grayson is set to die from nitrogen hypoxia after being convicted of murdering 37-year-old hitchhiker Vickie Deblieux in 1994. Supporters claim that this is a painless method. Opponents call this torture

An inmate on death row in Alabama will become the third inmate in the country to be executed with nitrogen gas on Thursday. Role in brutal murder in 1994 a hitchhiker.

Carey Dale Grayson, now 49, was one of four teenagers convicted of capital murder in the torture, bludgeoning and mutilation of Vickie Lynn Deblieux on February 21, 1994. Deblieux, 37, was hitchhiking from southeast Tennessee to visit her mother in the West. Monroe, Louisiana, was arraigned when four teenagers picked him up off a highway near Trussville and began killing him a short time later. records show.

If Grayson’s execution goes ahead as the state plans on Thursday, Grayson will be executed. 22nd prisoner was executed in the country so far this year. This will also be the sixth execution in the state this year and the third in two months. reported the Montgomery AdvertiserPart of the USA TODAY Network.

As his execution approaches, USA TODAY looks back at who Grayson was and what set him on the path to murder.

More about what Carey Dale Grayson was convicted of

On February 21, 1994, Deblieux was dropped off by a friend in Chattanooga near Interstate 59, where he began cycling southwest.

At one point, 19-year-old Grayson and three other teenagers picked up Deblieux. On the Jefferson County interstate in Alabama, About 25 miles northeast of Birmingham.

The young people stopped in the forest area on Bald Mountain with the trick of buying another vehicle. There Deblieux was beaten, trampled and kicked. Testimony showed Grayson and another teenager held him at his throat to kill him.

His body was eventually thrown off a cliff. Court records show the teens later returned and dismembered her body, slashing her body at least 180 times, removing part of one of her lungs and cutting off her fingers.

The teenagers became suspects in the murder after one of the children showed one of Deblieux’s fingers to a friend.

In addition to Grayson, the jury found Kenny Loggins, Trace Duncan and Louis Mangione guilty of the capital murder.

The death sentences of Duncan, Loggins, and Mangione were reversed and each was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The move came after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 banned the execution of people who were under 18 when they committed a crime.

More information about the nitrogen gas method

Nitrogen hypoxia is a controversial execution method and was tried for the first time in the country when an execution was carried out in Alabama. Kenneth Eugene Smith In January. Smith’s execution by this method attracted national and international scorn and media attention, including a protest from the Vatican.

Smith appeared to writhe and convulse on the gurney for at least four minutes during the execution. State and prison system officials had said before the execution that Smith would lose consciousness “within seconds” and die within minutes when gas began flowing into the full-face mask Smith was wearing.

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm called Smith’s execution “textbook” at a news conference about a half hour after the execution and said the prison system was ready to move forward with other nitrogen hypoxia executions.

There are approximately 160 inmates on death row in Alabama, and they are given a choice of which execution method to use: lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution. Grayson is among about 30 inmates in Alabama who chose the nitrogen hypoxia method before using it for the first time.

With the nitrogen hypoxia method, the prisoner breathes pure nitrogen through a mask, which replaces the oxygen in his system. Proponents claim that this is an almost instant and painless method. Opponents claim this is untested and amounts to torture.

on September 26 Alan Eugene Miller He became the second Alabama prisoner to be executed using nitrogen hypoxia.

Grayson’s calls are almost all sold out

Grayson has filed and lost numerous appeals over the years. Her last hope for a reprieve lies with the U.S. Supreme Court and Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who responded to the Montgomery Advertiser’s question about the timing of Grayson’s execution a week before Thanksgiving: “Has Carey Grayson ever considered a stay of execution? Vicki DeBlieux and the fact that his family has now stolen 30 Thanksgivings?”

On August 15, the Alabama Supreme Court authorized Grayson’s execution. Days later, his lawyers asked a federal judge to block the state from using the nitrogen protocol.

Lawyers drew attention to Smith’s execution, saying that this method could amount to cruel and unusual punishment because it did not guarantee a painless death for their clients.

More about Carey Dale Grayson

Grayson has bipolar disorder, and his mother died when he was 3 after struggling with mental illness, according to court records.

A forensic psychologist testified that Grayson was in a “manic state” at the time of the murder but “knew the difference between right and wrong and was able to appreciate the nature, nature, or wrongness of his actions,” according to court records.

In an interview with police, Grayson said the teenagers committed the most heinous acts during the crime. When asked why they killed Deblieux, he told police he didn’t know and that “it wasn’t his problem,” according to court records.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior correspondent for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.

Related Posts