An Alabama man convicted of murdering a female hitchhiker in 1994 became the third person in US history to be executed by nitrogen gas.
Jodi Haley, Deblieux’s daughter who was 12 at the time of the murder, told reporters after the execution that Grayson was abused in his youth.
She said that “society failed this man as a child, and my family suffered because of it”.
Alabama began using nitrogen gas this year to carry out death sentences.
It involves using a respirator gas mask to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas that results in a lack of oxygen.
The third person in US history to be executed by nitrogen gas was an Alabama man who was found guilty in 1994 of killing a female hitchhiker.
50-year-old Carey Dale Grayson was put to death on Thursday after being found guilty of capital murder in 1996 for the murder of Vickie Deblieux, who was 37 at the time.
The US Supreme Court rejected a petition that would have prevented the execution, despite his attorneys’ arguments that the court should examine the new execution method’s constitutionality.
Nitrogen hypoxia has not been used to execute the death penalty in any other state.
Grace Grayson was put to death at the William C. Members of his victim’s family protested the murder at Holman Correction Facility in Alabama.
Following the execution, Jodi Haley, Deblieux’s daughter, who was 12 at the time of the murder, told reporters that Grayson had experienced abuse as a child. According to her, “my family suffered because society failed this man as a child.”.
“There must be an end to killing prisoners in the name of justice,” she declared. She went on to say that “no one should have the right to take a person’s life, days, or possibilities.”.
This year, Alabama started executing death sentences with nitrogen gas. It entails substituting pure nitrogen gas for breathable air using a respirator gas mask, which leaves oxygen deficient.
Grayson’s lawyers contended that rather than causing rapid unconsciousness, the new technique results in “conscious suffocation”.
State lawyers, however, cited two earlier executions earlier this year in which inmates died from nitrogen hypoxia. Last month was the most recent.
According to US media, Grayson shook and gasped as the gas started to flow, and he made lewd gestures prior to the execution on Thursday.
He was the only teen over the age of eighteen at the time of the murder and one of four found guilty in the Deblieux murder. Only he was given the death penalty.
When the four teenagers picked Deblieux up in Alabama, she was preparing to hitchhike from Tennessee to Louisiana.
She was taken to a wooded area by the teenagers, who then threw her body off a cliff, beat her, and stood on her throat.
She was stabbed 180 times, had portions of her fingers severed, and her body was mutilated when they returned to the mountain.
Three rock climbers subsequently discovered Deblieux’s body. According to a medical examiner, each bone in her face had at least one fracture.
“I pray that the state of Alabama will provide comfort to Vickie’s family by bringing justice to their devastating loss,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. “I also hope that other victims of violent crimes will eventually receive justice without having to wait thirty years. “,”.
