Posted on 11/21/2024 3:22:29 PM PST by nickcarraway
The state is scheduled to execute Carey Dale Grayson, 50, who was convicted of killing a hitchhiker in 1994. Alabama's use of nitrogen continues to stir debate.
An Alabama inmate convicted in a 1994 murder is poised to die Thursday in the state's third nitrogen hypoxia execution this year.
The emerging execution method, which involves breathing solely nitrogen gas through a mask while being deprived of oxygen, continues to draw concerns over the possibility of prolonged suffering and whether there is an unconstitutional risk of added pain.
But a federal appeals court this week rejected arguments made by the condemned man's lawyers, allowing the execution of Carey Dale Grayson, 50, to proceed.
Grayson is set to die at the state prison in Atmore for the abduction and killing of a hitchhiker, Vickie Deblieux, when he was 19 and his three co-defendants were younger than 18.
His co-defendants' death sentences were eventually amended to life sentences after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing juveniles is unconstitutional.
Protesters have sent petitions asking Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to halt Grayson's execution. Her office did not respond to a request for comment, but she is not expected to intercede, telling the Montgomery Advertiser this month when she was asked about the state's carrying out an execution a week before Thanksgiving: "Did Carey Grayson give any consideration to the fact that he robbed Vickie Deblieux and her family of now 30 Thanksgivings?"
Grayson's lawyers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, writing that his case "raises issues of national importance" among death penalty states about "whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits suffocating a conscious prisoner and whether a state's refusal to prevent conscious suffocation via a novel method of execution superadds terror and pain in violation of the Eighth Amendment."
The high court has typically declined to intervene in last-minute requests to halt executions. It refused to do so when Alabama executed Kenneth Smith, the first person in the U.S. to die in a nitrogen gas execution, in January and again in September, when the state executed Alan Miller in a second nitrogen gas execution.
Eyewitness reports of both executions mentioned that the men appeared to struggle while they were strapped to gurneys and being fed nitrogen. Smith, 58, did not become unconscious as quickly as expected, and he appeared to shake and writhe for two minutes, while Miller, 59, pulled against his restraints and periodically gasped for about six minutes, according to reports.
In both cases, Alabama initially tried to execute the men by lethal injection, but the attempts were abandoned when prison staff members could not successfully establish intravenous lines.
The series of problematic executions using lethal injection led Alabama officials to pause the practice in 2022 and re-evaluate before they restarted it last year. Since then, Alabama has become the first state to develop a nitrogen hypoxia execution protocol in addition to lethal injection.
Lethal injection remains the default method in the state, although condemned inmates can choose nitrogen hypoxia or, in some cases, electrocution.
Grayson had chosen nitrogen hypoxia before a protocol for it was in place.
“The State of Alabama’s nitrogen protocol has been used twice and has not worked as they swore it would. Instead of taking the sensible approach and fixing the problem, they are pushing forward using the same method on Thursday," Grayson’s lawyer John Palombi said.
"Mr. Grayson’s execution should be stopped and a full, independent, and transparent examination of the protocol conducted,” he added.
The use of nitrogen has raised concerns among human rights groups as states have looked for viable alternatives to lethal injection, a method that has become increasingly difficult because of a shortage of the necessary drugs.
If nitrogen, a naturally occurring, colorless and odorless gas, is not mixed with enough oxygen, it can cause physical side effects, such as impaired respiration, vomiting and even death, medical experts say.
During an execution, a small amount of oxygen's getting into an inmate's mask as the inmate breathes nitrogen could lead to slow asphyxiation and prolong the time it would take to die, according to the experts.
In his arguments in front of the appeals court panel this week, Palombi mentioned concerns about how long Smith and Miller were conscious as their bodies reacted to the procedure.
"I would submit to the court that being conscious and being suffocated for a period of time constitutes terror that is superadded to this protocol that does not have to be there, as acknowledged by the fact that the state is willing to, if he requests it, give Mr. Grayson a sedative," said Palombi, who is with the Federal Defenders Program.
Robert Overing, Alabama's deputy solicitor general, disagreed with Palombi's assessment and countered that nitrogen hypoxia is not akin to suffocation "like drowning or smothering with a plastic bag or paralyzing the lungs."
"This is really apples and oranges trying to use the term 'suffocation' to evoke a sense of fear and pain that doesn't exist with this method," Overing told the court.
Grayson is set to become the sixth person executed in Alabama this year.
In February 1994, prosecutors say, he and three teenage friends — Kenny Loggins, Trace Duncan and Louis Mangione — were using alcohol and drugs when they encountered Deblieux, 37, who was hitchhiking through Alabama to see her mother in Louisiana.
They beat Deblieux, threw her off a cliff and mutilated her body, including cutting off her fingers, according to court records. They were linked to the crime after Mangione showed Deblieux's finger to friends, prosecutors say.
Grayson, who was 19 at the time of killing, was sentenced to death, while Mangione, then 16, was given a life sentence. Death sentences for Loggins and Duncan, then both 17, were later commuted to life in prison.
Rope is a lot cheaper as well as bullets. Keep it simple stupid.
Execution should have been what awaits Riley’s murderer. And it shouldn’t take 30 years to get there.
1) use a sedation agent to knock em out,
2) asphyxiate via nitrogen.
Done.
Just shoot the F’er!
Link regarding the murder:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Vickie_Deblieux
After murdering her in a barbaric way, they (four of them took part) sexually assaulted her corpse.
It sure doesn't draw those "concerns" from people who work with nitrogen on a regular basis. The concern we have is accidentally getting into a very reduced oxygen environment without knowing it. It's why our labs and work areas have oxygen sensors, alarms, and automatic ventilation systems.
How come assisted suicide is humane, but the death penalty isn’t?
I’m sure the other prisoners with administer proper justice to that SOB, and it will take a fraction the number of year as a fraction of the cost.
A company I worked at had a huge dry nitrogen tank. The line for the place where the nitrogen was used ran through a classified lab which was a large, locked room. There were several workers in the room. The line developed a leak and killed the people in the room. The next person who entered would have died also had he not realized instantly what must have happened, and he didn’t go into the room. There were no symptoms and no warning. One moment conscious and the next moment, dead.
There was a suicide kit being marketed as totally painless. It was a plastic bag with a drawstring and a small container of compressed nitrogen. Hook up the container to the bag. Place it over the head and draw it snug. Unscrew the cap and...dead. (At least I presume none of the users complained.)
They’re always concerned over not harming the murderer in any way.
(four of them took part) sexually assaulted her corpse.
How drunk or drugged do you have to be to sexually assault
a corpse?
Inspectors who entered the hull of a ship carrying scrap steel died. The rusting iron removed all the oxygen. Never knew what hit them. They just went to sleep.
The death penalty is humane. Excess suffering is not. Im good with a bullet, snapped neck, asphyxiation, instant lethal injection, etc.
it’s probably TOO peaceful ... bring back hanging that uses the short drop method ...
whether there is an unconstitutional risk of added pain.
Was there unconstitutional risk of added pain to the person he murdered in 1994? Then I don’t care.
What’s wrong with a rope and a long drop? Or a bullet to the base of the skull? Both are very quick with zero suffering.
I never understood parading these people in front of an audience and making a ceremony out of it. This drawn out process is the cruelness.
Just take them to a room with a couple witnesses and shoot them. The entire process should take less than five minutes from the time the prisoner leaves the cell to the time the corpse is placed in a box.
I still think offering inmates any and all the drugs they want for 20-40 days with the understanding that on one of the days past day 20, they will get a pure dose or batch that will be pure enough to kill them. Give them a cut of 30% then one day drop in 100%. My guess is with an unlimited supply they will self eliminate in 7 days way before the pure stuff hits. Let them commit suicide.
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