Alabama carries out third US execution by nitrogen gas for 1994 hitchhiking murder

Alabama on Thursday carried out the U.S.'s third nitrogen gas execution on a man who was convicted of the 1994 murder of a female hitchhiker.

Carey Dale Grayson, who was one of four teens convicted in the death of Vickie Deblieux, was declared dead at 6:33 p.m. at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in southern Alabama. He was 50 years old at the time of his execution.

Grayson, who was 19 when the group killed Deblieux, was the only teenager to get the death penalty for the murder because two of the teenagers were under 18 at the time. The other teenager was sentenced to life in prison, per CNN.

Deblieux was found dead in February of 1994, while hitchhiking from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to her mother’s home in West Monroe, Louisiana. The teenagers offered her a ride, and took her to a wooded area where they beat and killed her. She was eventually tossed over a cliff, and her body was so damaged doctors had to identify her by an x-ray.

Prosecutors said that the teenagers were eventually caught when one of the friends bragged about the murder.

“Some thirty years ago, Vicki DeBlieux’s journey to her mother’s house and ultimately, her life, were horrifically cut short because of Carey Grayson and three other men," Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement reported by the Associated Press. 

Grayson’s crimes "were heinous, unimaginable, without an ounce of regard for human life and just unexplainably mean," she continued. "An execution by nitrogen hypoxia (bears) no comparison to the death and dismemberment Ms. DeBlieux experienced."

The execution occurred shortly after the Supreme Court denied Grayson's final request to stay the procedure until the new method was further scrutinized. Critics have claimed that the nitrogen gas method needed more review because the first two people shook for several minutes. 

Death by nitrogen gas is carried out by placing a respirator gas mask over the person’s face and suffocating them by filling the mask with pure nitrogen instead of oxygen.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.