By Agency Report
Alabama de@th row inmate, Carey Dale Grayson has become the third inmate in the U.S. to be executed by nitrogen gas.
Grayson, 50, was executed on Thursday, November 21, for the torture, bludgeoning, and mutilation of Vickie Lynn DeBlieux on Feb. 21, 1994.
Deblieux, 37, was hitchhiking from southeastern Tennessee to visit her mother in West Monroe, Louisiana, when Grayson, then 19, and three other teens picked her up along and soon after proceeded to k!ll her, court records say.
He was pronounced de@d at 6:33 p.m., according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Read too: Alabama Court Sentences 83-Year-Old Man To Death
The execution is the 22nd in the U.S. this year and the sixth in Alabama, which has put three of the men to death using nitrogen gas, a controversial method that some witnesses describe as torture.
Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm said after the execution that Grayson’s movements at the beginning of the process appeared to be “for show.”
When the nitrogen began flowing, Grayson tightly clenched his hands, took deep gasps, shook his head vigorously, and pulled against his restraints. He appeared to lose consciousness at 6:18 p.m., about six minutes after the gas began flowing.
At some point, Grayson, then 19, and his friends stopped in a wooded area on Bald Mountain where they savagely b£@t her, eventually ch0king the life out of her by standing on her throat.
But the other three all had their d€@th sentences reversed after the US Supreme Court banned the ex£cution of people who were under 18 when they committed the crime.
Ms DeBleiux’s daughter Jodi Haley was just 12 when she was m¥rdered.
Speaking to reporters at the prison’s media centre after the ex€cution, she said her mother’s life and future had been stolen.
“She was unique. She was spontaneous. She was wild. She was funny. She was gorgeous to boot,” Ms Haley said of her mother.
She said Grayson was abus£d in every possible way in his youth but “society failed this man as a child, and my family suffered because of it”.
“M¥rdering inmates under the guise of justice needs to stop,” she said, adding: “No one should have the right to take a person’s possibilities, days, and life.”
Grayson was put to d£@th at the William C Holman Correctional Facility in southern Alabama.
His last words were so obscene he was cut off by warden Terry Raybon before he could finish.
Addressing Mr Raybon, he raised both middle fingers and said: “For you, you need to f*** off.”
The microphone was carried off seconds later when Grayson, with a gas mask strapped to his face, turned to state officials and the witness room, ranting: “For the rest of you…”
He was not allowed to finish speaking.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Q Hamm said the nitrogen flowed for 15 minutes, with Grayson’s heart no longer beating about 10 minutes.
