Following what they describe as the "torturous" execution of Kenneth Smith earlier in the year, evidence indicates significant issues , such as Smith experiencing blood filling his lungs. Despite apprehensions, Alabama is planning to carry out two more executions using nitrogen gas, a practice it initiated.
In court documents , Grayson's legal team condemned Alabama's disregard for the flawed method: "Rather than investigating what went wrong as other states have done following issues with executions defendants have chosen to ignore clear and obvious signs the current protocol contains major problems that will result in more unconstitutionally torturous executions if it continues to be employed," reports the Daily Star .
The Attorney General's office, which previously backed the legality of the method and with AG Steve Marshall calling prior executions "textbook" hasn't commented since the Tuesday filing.
Alabama is expected to respond imminently to the request for a preliminary injunction. Posthumously, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences conducted an autopsy on Smith, revealing blood and fluid within his lungs, as per a report from the Mirror US.
The post-mortem examination of the state revealed that the deceased's lungs showed "marked congestion and edema with dark maroon blood" upon being opened. Additionally, a "small amount of frothy fluid" was found in the tracheobronchial tree.
An expert hired by Grayson's defense has expressed serious concerns about the autopsy results. Anaesthesiologist Dr. Brian McAlary pointed out that the signs indicate negative pressure pulmonary edema, which can occur when an individual attempts to breathe in against a blocked airway, causing fluid to be drawn from the blood vessels into the lungs.
He also mentioned that this condition could result from strangulation or suffocation with a plastic bag. Furthermore, he emphasized that not administering a sedative before nitrogen gas exposure could increase the likelihood of panic.
In his report, Dr. McAlary stated: "Mr. Smith's autopsy demonstrates what happens to the body when this panic response occurs. An individual experiencing panic and the sensation of the inability to breathe while also being denied oxygen will experience a constricted airway similar to an upper airway obstruction."
Dr. Thomas Andrew, the former chief medical examiner of New Hampshire, explained to AP that congested lungs are a symptom of heart failure as "blood backs up and the lungs become quite congested".
He stated: "I think that's a critical critique of the protocols used in this form of execution... You certainly will have a sense of the absence of oxygen, air hunger, and all of the panic and discomfort that is part and parcel of that way of dying."
Alabama decided to adopt nitrogen gas as an execution method back in 2018, with inmate Grayson choosing it for his own death penalty despite there being no solid plan in place at the time to carry it out.
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Grayson found himself on death row for the 1994 killing of Vickie Deblieux, aged 37, in Jefferson County. After offering her a lift while she was thumbing a ride home, Grayson and three other teenagers violently attacked her, threw her off a cliff, and gruesomely desecrated her remains, according to the prosecution's case.
The lethal punishment was doled out solely to Grayson because he was the eldest among the assailants.
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