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.

INDIANA SEEKS TO CARRY OUT FIRST EXECUTION IN 15 YEARS AFTER OBTAINING LETHAL INJECTION DRUG

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.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS IT IS ‘DEEPLY TROUBLED’ BY ALABAMA’S EXECUTION OF MAN USING NITROGEN GAS

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.

Allegations have been raised by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (among others) that millions of dollars may be being funneled into candidate campaign coffers through a process known as “smurfing.” We’re not talking about donations being made by small, blue comic-book characters—although we might as well be if the allegations are true.

What is campaign finance smurfing? It is a form of money laundering for campaign contributions. It involves breaking up large-scale donations in a way that disguises who the money is actually coming from, so the contribution limits on how much money can be donated to a particular candidate can be skirted. It may involve widespread mail and wire fraud and the fraudulent use of the identities of unwitting members of the public to violate federal and state campaign finance laws.

Several important rules apply to the funding of congressional and presidential campaigns under the Federal Election Campaign Act or FECA.

HOUSE GOP DEMANDS FEC PROBE ‘POTENTIALLY ILLEGAL’ ACTBLUE FUNDRAISING AS DEM PLATFORM HAULS HARRIS MILLIONS

First, federal law strictly prohibits corporations and unions from making any direct contributions to federal candidates. Second, the FECA bans foreign nationals foreign nationals from making contributions. Only U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens can give money to the campaigns of individuals running for Congress and the presidency (as well as state and local offices).

Third, federal law limits the amount that an individual can contribute to a candidate. In the current 2023-24 election cycle, individuals cannot contribute more than $3,300 for the primary election and the same amount for the general election. Other limits apply for contributions to PACs and party organizations.

The Federal Election Commission, where I once served as a commissioner, has civil enforcement authority for FECA violations, while the U.S. Justice Department has criminal enforcement authority for intentional and knowing violations of the law. For an example of a criminal violation relevant to smurfing, consider a case I saw when I was a commissioner.

The senior partner of a law firm told his employees that if they made the maximum contribution to a presidential candidate, he would reimburse them. This is called a conduit contribution and was an attempt to get around the contribution limit by the lawyer – making a campaign contribution in the name of another person is illegal.

‘SERIOUS LOOPHOLE’: GOP WIDENS PROBE INTO ACTBLUE, DEM FUNDRAISING PLATFORM HELPING HARRIS RAISE MILLIONS

One of the clues for the Justice Department was that the law firm staff had never made political contributions before. Yet they were all suddenly giving the maximum amount despite their much lower salaries than the firm’s senior partner.

So how does all of this apply to smurfing? Assume that an unknown perpetrator deposits a large sum of money into a bank account. He ties it to a corporate payment credit-card system, which is often used by companies to generate unique credit-card account numbers for their employees to use for transactions. He then generates credit-card account numbers for members of the public without their knowledge and uses those individuals as straw donors to make political contributions, perhaps through an aggregator like ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising website.

Where does this criminal get the names and addresses? There are all sorts of potential sources, including the lists of reported donors to campaigns listed on the FEC’s website. He can then generate thousands of donations, mostly small ones to avoid raising any red flags, to multiple candidates, using real names and addresses of individuals without their knowledge.

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Miyares’s letter to ActBlue claims that “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in contributions have been made through ActBlue in Virginia “that are facially implausible and appear suspicious.” “Virginia donors,” says Miyares, “are reported as making multiple daily contributions…amounting to tens of thousands of dollars in aggregate.” Yet many list their occupation as “not employed” or “retired,” and circumstances make it appear as if they “are being made from fictional donors or dummy accounts” and “without the reported donors’ consent or awareness.”

Sen. Rubio has also questioned these transactions in a complaint letter to the FEC; specifically, the fact that ActBlue does not “require CVV numbers as part of making an online transaction.” CVV numbers are the three-digit “card verification value” numbers we all have on the back side of our credit cards that are used to verify the legitimacy of credit-card transactions. Rubio says that not requiring a CVV number amounts to “an intentional lack of security engrained within” ActBlue’s donation process.

 ActBlue has strenuously denied these charges both in a response to an investigation by the U.S. House Committee on Administration and to Jason Miyares, who ActBlue says is engaging is “a partisan attack and scare tactic” intended to undermine “small-dollar” Democrat donors.

The only way to get to the truth is for these questionable donations to be investigated. That means both the FEC and the Justice Department – and state attorneys general under applicable state fraud laws – need to get busy, including talking to the donors listed in the filed reports to see if they actually made these donations and were not barred from making them.

All of these law-enforcement agencies have an obligation to determine if there are “Smurfs” out there using money laundering to illegally interfere in our elections.

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• A large bronze statue of Congressman John Lewis, the late civil rights leader, was installed in Decatur, Georgia, where a monument to the Confederacy was removed in 2020.
• The confederate monument was a stone obelisk erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1908. It became the subject of protests over police violence following the death of George Floyd.
• John Lewis was known for his participation on the front lines of the civil rights movement. His statue will be officially unveiled on Aug. 24.

A large bronze statue of the late civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis was installed Friday, at the very spot where a contentious monument to the Confederacy stood for more than 110 years in the town square before it was dismantled in 2020.

Work crews gently rested the 12-foot-tall statue into place as the internationally acclaimed sculptor, Basil Watson, looked on carefully.

“It’s exciting to see it going up and exciting for the city because of what he represents and what it’s replacing,” Watson said, as he assisted with the installation process.

LIFE-SIZE SCULPTURE OF ‘FIGHTING’ TRUMP MADE FROM NAILS UNVEILED AT ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT SITE

Lewis was known for his role at the front lines of the civil rights movement and urged others to get in “good trouble” for a cause he saw as vital and necessary. In DeKalb County, where the Confederate monument stood for more than a century, protesters have invoked “good trouble” in calling for the swift removal of the obelisk.

Back in 2020, the stone obelisk was lifted from its base with straps amid jeers and chants of “Just drop it!” from onlookers in Decatur, Georgia, who were kept at a safe distance by sheriff’s deputies. The obelisk was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1908.

Groups like the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights and Hate Free Decatur had been pushing for the monument to be removed since the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The monument was among those around the country that became flashpoints for protests over police brutality and racial injustice, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. The city of Decatur then asked a Georgia judge to order the removal of the monument, which was often vandalized and marked by graffiti, saying it had become a threat to public safety.

The statue of Lewis will be officially unveiled on Aug. 24.