Alabama has authorized the execution of a third person by nitrogen gas , just months after becoming the first state to carry out an execution using this previously untested method.
The Alabama Supreme Court has approved Attorney General Steve Marshall's request to authorize the execution of death row inmate Carey Dale Grayson. Grayson was one of four teenagers convicted in the 1994 murder of Vickie Deblieux in Jefferson County.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey will now set Grayson’s execution date. This decision comes after the state executed Kenneth Smith in January using nitrogen gas for the first time in the US.
A second execution using this method is scheduled for September 26 for Alan Eugene Miller, who recently settled a lawsuit with the state over the execution method. Conflicting accounts of what happened during Smith's execution have emerged.
Although Marshall described the execution as "textbook," lawyers representing inmates argued that it contradicted the state's claim that nitrogen would result in a quick and painless death. They said the execution was the opposite of what the state predicted.
Smith was seen shaking for several minutes on the death chamber gurney as he was executed. Grayson is currently involved in a lawsuit to prevent the state from using the same protocol used in Smith's execution, with his attorneys claiming the method inflicts unconstitutional levels of pain and arguing that Smith exhibited signs of "conscious suffocation."
Matt Schulz, an assistant federal defender representing Grayson, expressed disappointment in an email, stating: "We are disappointed that the Alabama Supreme Court has authorized the setting of an execution date before the federal courts have had a chance to review Mr. Grayson's challenge to the constitutionality of Alabama's current nitrogen protocol, and before Mr. Grayson has had an opportunity to review any changes to the protocol brought about by the recent Alan Miller settlement".
Earlier this month, Miller reached a "confidential settlement agreement" with the state, ending his lawsuit over the specifics of the state's nitrogen gas protocol. The Alabama Department of Corrections declined to comment on whether procedural changes are being made for Miller.
The state has requested a judge to dismiss Grayson's lawsuit, arguing that the execution method is constitutional and his claims are speculative. Marshall's office did not immediately respond to the court setting the execution date.
Grayson was charged with the torture and murder of Deblieux, 37, on Feb. 21, 1994. Prosecutors claimed Deblieux was hitchhiking from Tennessee to her mother's home in Louisiana when four teenagers, including Grayson, offered her a ride. They allegedly took her to a wooded area, attacked and beat her, and threw her off a cliff.
The teens later mutilated her body, according to prosecutors. Grayson, Kenny Loggins, and Trace Duncan were all initially sentenced to death for their crimes. However, after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 decision banning executions of those who were under 18 at the time of their crime, Loggins and Duncan had their sentences commuted since they were minors when the offense occurred.
Grayson, who was 19 at the time, remained on death row. Another teenager involved in the case received a life sentence.
Alabama had argued against an age cutoff for the death penalty in a 2004 Supreme Court brief, claiming it would be illogical to execute Grayson but not his co-defendants, who were described as "plainly are every bit as culpable - if not more so - in Vickie's death and mutilation."
While lethal injection is still the primary method of execution in Alabama, inmates have the choice to opt for the electric chair or nitrogen gas. Grayson had chosen nitrogen gas, but this was before Alabama had finalized a protocol for its use.
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