Carey Dale Grayson, 52, became the third person to be executed using nitrogen gas in the US after being convicted of the 1994 murder of hitchhiker Vickie Deblieux.
Carey Dale Grayson, 52, became the third person to be executed using nitrogen gas in the US after being convicted of the 1994 murder of hitchhiker Vickie Deblieux.
A death row murderer has made one final defiant act, hurling seven dark last words and pulling the fingers before being executed via a new method that has been slammed at torturous.
Carey Dale Grayson was convicted for the heinous 1994 murder of 37-year-old hitchhiker Vickie Deblieux.
The 50-year-old murderer was one of four teenagers convicted of Deblieux’s killing as she hitchhiked through the state on the way to her mother’s home in Louisiana.
She was picked up by the four men, attacked, brutally beaten senseless, had fingers severed and thrown off a cliff.
Her face was so fractured she had to be identified by an earlier spine X-ray, while her killers boasted about her death.
While waiting for his execution at William Holman correctional facility in southern Alabama last Thursday, the prison governor read his death warrant and held the microphone to Grayson and asked if he had any final words.
In an act of defiance, the 50-year-old said: “For you, you need to f**k off”.
As the prison governor withdrew the mic, Grayson then hurled more abuse that reportedly went unheard.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Q Hamm told reporters: “He [Grayson] has cursed out most of our employees tonight, so we were not going to give him the opportunity to spew that profanity”.
Carey Dale Grayson, 52, became the third person to be executed using nitrogen gas in the US after being convicted of the 1994 murder of hitchhiker Vickie Deblieux.
Grayson was then strapped to on a gurney as a face mask was attached to his face.
In one final defiant act the 50-year-old killer raised both middle fingers as nitrogen gas began to enter his body before he suffocated.
He was declared dead at 6.33pm.
His execution was not without backlash after becoming the third person to be put to death using nitrogen gas, a method that has been described by some as “torturous”.
The nitrogen gas flowed for 15 minutes and an electrocardiogram showed Grayson no longer had a heartbeat about 10 minutes after the gas began flowing, according to Hamm.
Alabama began using the nitrogen gas for executions earlier this year. The method involves placing a respirator gas mask over the face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen.
Governor Kay Ivey issued a statement minutes after Thursday’s execution saying Grayson’s crimes were “heinous, unimaginable, without an ounce of regard for human life and just unexplainably mean. An execution by nitrogen hypoxia (bears) no comparison to the death and dismemberment Ms DeBlieux experienced”.
He rocked his head, shook and pulled against the gurney restraints, according to AP.
He clenched his fists before struggling to gesture again. Like two others executed by nitrogen, Grayson reportedly shook at times before taking a number of gasping breaths.
Deblieux’s daughter Jodi Haley told reporters that while Grayson had stolen her mother’s life and future, that “murdering inmates under the guise of justice needs to stop”.
“No one should have the right to take a person’s possibilities, days, and life.”
