A man sentenced to death for the murder 30 years ago of a hitchhiker in Alabama, in the southern United States, was executed Thursday by nitrogen inhalation, a process used for only the third time in the world . “Alabama successfully used nitrogen hypoxia to carry out the execution of Carey Grayson,” state Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.
As in the two previous executions by nitrogen inhalation which took place in February and September, both in Alabama, UN experts warned on Wednesday that this method could constitute a form of “torture”, estimating that it was “prohibited by international law”.
According to members of the media who attended the execution, Carey Grayson insulted the prison warden when he asked if he had any final words. Then, when the gas began to spread through the mask on his face, he shook his head from side to side. The 49-year-old man panted for several minutes before stopping moving, the same sources said.
Carey Grayson was sentenced to the death penalty in 1996 for the murder committed two years earlier with three accomplices, minors at the time, of Vickie Deblieux. This 37-year-old woman was hitchhiking from Tennessee to her mother's house in Louisiana and her body was found with stab wounds and mutilated postmortem.
The execution, which took place at Holman Penitentiary, is the 22nd carried out in the United States since the beginning of the year, all by lethal injection, with the exception of these three in Alabama, a state known as the one of the most religious and conservative in the United States.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 American states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions by decision of the governor.
