Alabama carries out third nitrogen gas execution in the U.S.

An Alabama inmate convicted of a 1994 brutal murder of a woman has been executed, officials announced. The execution marks the third use of nitrogen hypoxia as a method in the U.S.

Carey Dale Grayson, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. on Wednesday at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, according to a statement from Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall. Grayson was executed for the murder of Vickie Deblieux.

On February 21, 1994, Deblieux, 37, was hitchhiking from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to her mother’s home in Louisiana when she was picked up by Carey Grayson, Kenny Loggins, Trace Duncan, and Louis Mangione in Jefferson County, Alabama. The four teenagers, who had been drinking and using drugs, offered to drive her, according to the statement.

Instead, they lured her to a secluded wooded area under the pretense of picking up another vehicle. There, they attacked her until Grayson ultimately killed her. Grayson and his accomplices then transported Deblieux’s body to a nearby mountain, where they abused it before throwing it off a cliff. Later, they returned to mutilate the body.

Deblieux’s remains were discovered on February 26, 1994, by three rock climbers.

Of the four perpetrators, Louis Mangione, who was 16 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to life in prison. The remaining three, Grayson, Kenneth Loggins, and Trace Duncan, initially received death sentences. However, in 2006, Alabama changed its laws to prohibit the execution of individuals who were under 18 at the time of their offenses. As a result, Loggins and Duncan, who were both 17 at the time of the murder, had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, leaving Grayson as the sole remaining member of the group on death row.

“Over 30 years ago, Grayson and his accomplices brutally murdered a complete stranger and mutilated her body. It takes a truly vicious monster to commit this kind of crime,” A.G. Marshall said. “Tonight, justice has been served.”

Marshall cleared the execution to proceed at 6:11 p.m. “My hope is that one day it will not take three decades to provide justice for other victims of violent crimes,” Marshall added.

Grayson’s execution by nitrogen hypoxia marks the third time this method has been used in the U.S. It remains exclusive to the state of Alabama, which first implemented it in January 2024 during the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith.

Nitrogen hypoxia, a method approved by Alabama lawmakers in 2018, involves depriving the inmate of oxygen by replacing it with nitrogen, leading to asphyxiation. The state has defended the method as a more humane alternative to lethal injection, though its use remains controversial.