Carey Dale Grayson, a 52-year-old Alabama inmate convicted of the 1994 brutal murder of a woman, has been executed, according to officials. Grayson is the third person in the United States to be executed using nitrogen hypoxia.
Grayson was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, according to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. He was sentenced to death for the murder of 37-year-old Vickie Deblieux.
On February 21, 1994, Deblieux, who was hitchhiking from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to her mother’s home in Louisiana, was picked up by Grayson and three accomplices: Kenny Loggins, Trace Duncan, and Louis Mangione, in Jefferson County, Alabama. The teenagers, who had been drinking and using drugs, offered her a ride but lured her to a remote wooded area.
There, Deblieux was attacked by the group, with Grayson ultimately delivering the fatal blows, according to the statement. After killing her, they transported her body to a nearby mountain, where they desecrated it before throwing it off a cliff. They later returned to mutilate her remains.
Deblieux’s body was discovered days later on February 26, 1994, by three rock climbers.
Grayson and his accomplices were arrested and charged. Louis Mangione, who was 16 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to life in prison. Grayson, Loggins, and Duncan, who were 17 at the time, were sentenced to death.
However, a 2006 change in Alabama law prohibited the execution of individuals who were minors at the time of their crimes. As a result, Loggins and Duncan’s sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, leaving Grayson as the only member of the group remaining on death row.
Attorney General Steve Marshall authorized the execution at 6:11 p.m. “Over 30 years ago, Grayson and his accomplices brutally murdered a complete stranger and mutilated her body,” Marshall said. “It takes a truly vicious monster to commit this kind of crime. Tonight, justice has been served.”
“My hope is that one day it will not take three decades to provide justice for other victims of violent crimes,” he added.
Grayson’s execution marks the third time nitrogen hypoxia has been used in the U.S. and Alabama. The state first implemented the method in January 2024 during the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith.
Nitrogen hypoxia, a method approved by Alabama lawmakers in 2018, involves depriving the inmate of oxygen by replacing it with pure nitrogen, leading to asphyxiation. The state has defended the method as a more humane alternative to lethal injection, though its use remains controversial.