Alabama sets third execution by nitrogen gas

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey set Nov. 21 as the date for what will be the third death sentence in the country to be carried out by nitrogen gas — and all will have happened in Alabama.

The execution date for Carey Dale Grayson, 49, was scheduled after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that it could be carried out. Grayson was one of four then-teenagers convicted in the 1994 killing of 37-year-old Vickie Deblieux.

In January, Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen gas for an execution when it carried out the death penalty for convicted killer Kenneth Smith, who survived an execution attempt by lethal injection in 2022. The execution method, which has been criticized as being inhumane and a form of torture, killed Smith after he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints before several minutes of heavy breathing until breathing was no longer perceptible.

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Smith’s execution was the first time that a new execution method had been used in the U.S. since lethal injection, which is now the most commonly used form of capital punishment, was introduced in 1982.

A second execution using nitrogen gas for Alan Eugene Miller, who also survived an execution attempt by lethal injection in 2022, is scheduled for Sept. 26. Miller reached a “confidential settlement agreement” with the state earlier this month to end his lawsuit over the specifics of the nitrogen gas protocol.

Grayson has an ongoing lawsuit seeking to block the state from using the same protocol that was used to execute Smith, with his attorneys arguing the method causes unconstitutional levels of pain and that Smith displayed signs of “conscious suffocation.”

Matt Schulz, an assistant federal defender representing Grayson, said last week he and his client are disappointed the execution was authorized before the federal courts had a chance to review Grayson’s challenge to the constitutionality of Alabama’s current nitrogen protocol.

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Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen gas for an execution earlier this year. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

Grayson was charged with torturing and killing Deblieux on Feb. 21, 1994, as she was hitchhiking from Tennessee to her mother’s home in Louisiana. Four teenagers, including Grayson, offered her a ride and took her to a wooded area where they attacked and beat her before throwing her off a cliff, according to prosecutors, who said the teenagers later mutilated her body.

Three of the teenagers — Grayson, Kenny Loggins and Trace Duncan — were all convicted and sentenced to death. Loggins and Duncan, who were under 18 at the time of the crime, had their death sentences set aside after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that offenders who were younger than 18 at the time of the crime cannot be executed. Grayson was unable to escape the death penalty after the ruling since he was 19 when the crime was committed.

The fourth teenager was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.