An Alabama prisoner convicted of the 1994 murder of a female hitchhiker is slated Thursday to become the third person executed by nitrogen gas .
Carey Dale Grayson, 50, was one of four teenagers convicted of killing Vickie Deblieux, 37, who was hitchhiking through Alabama on her way to her mother's home in Louisiana. He is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Thursday at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in south Alabama.
Alabama this year began using nitrogen gas to carry out some death sentences, the first use of a new execution method in the United States since lethal injection was introduced in 1982. The method involves placing a respirator gas mask over the person's face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen.
Alabama maintains the method is constitutional. But critics - citing how the first two people executed shook for several minutes - say the method needs more scrutiny, particularly if other states follow Alabama's path and adopt the new execution method.
Deblieux's mutilated body was found at the bottom of a bluff near Odenville, Alabama, on Feb. 26, 1994. Prosecutors said Deblieux was hitchhiking from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to her mother's home in West Monroe, Louisiana, when four teens offered her a ride. Prosecutors said the teens took her to a wooded area and attacked and beat her. They threw her off a cliff and later returned to mutilate her body.
