Sylvie Clair / November 26, 2024
A man sentenced to death for the murder thirty years ago of a hitchhiker in Alabama, in the southern United States, was executed on Thursday by nitrogen inhalation, a procedure used for only the third time in the world.
“Alabama successfully used nitrogen hypoxia (inhalation) to carry out the execution of Carey Grayson,” said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall in a statement.
As with the two previous executions by nitrogen inhalation, in February and September - both in Alabama - UN experts warned on Wednesday that this method could constitute a form of “torture”, deeming it “prohibited by international law”.
According to members of the media who attended the execution, Carey Grayson insulted the prison warden when asked if he had any final words. Then, as the gas began to pour into the mask over his face, he shook his head from side to side. The 49-year-old gasped for several minutes before ceasing to move, the same sources said.
Carey Grayson was convicted in 1996 of the murder, two years earlier, of Vickie Deblieux with three accomplices who were minors at the time. The 37-year-old woman was hitchhiking from Tennessee to her mother's Louisiana home when her body was found stabbed and mutilated post mortem.
The execution, which took place at Holman Penitentiary, was 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.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions by decision of the governor.