A murderer has become only the third person in the world to be executed on death row by the method of nitrogen gas hypoxia.
Carey Dale Grayson, 50, was killed on Thursday night at William C. Holman Correctional facility in Alabama using the controvesial method, which sees a gas mask strapped to the prisoner's face and breathable air replaced with nitrogen. Grayson suffered oxygen deprivation and died.
Grayson raised his middle fingers and cursed at the prison warden Thursday evening. When the prison warden asked for his final statement, Grayson responded with an obscenity. The warden turned off the microphone.
Despite Alabama's claims the method is constitutional, critics, including Grayson's lawyers, have denounced the state for ignoring the method's "flaws". Prior to Grayson's execution, his lawyers highlighted witness accounts and autopsy results from the January 2024 execution of Kenneth Smith, the first person in the US to be put to death using nitrogen gas.
But Grayson was convicted for the murder of 37-year-old Vickie Deblieux in Jefferson County, Colorado. In 1994, he and three other teenagers attacked the woman after they offered her a ride as she was hitchhiking home.
The thug savagely assaulted her, threw her off a cliff, and then mutilated her body. The death penalty was only imposed on Grayson because he was the oldest of the teenagers.
And Grayson was made subject to the nitrogen gas hypoxia tonight even though witnesses described Smith's death earlier this year as "torturous". An autopsy reportedly revealed disturbing signs in Smith's body, including lungs filled with blood.
Dr Brian McAlary, an anaesthesiologist working with Grayson's legal team, suggested these symptoms could indicate negative pressure pulmonary edema, a condition that occurs when someone tries to inhale against a blocked airway, causing fluid to be drawn out of the blood vessels.
He also suggested that such a condition could be caused by acts like strangulation or suffocation with a plastic bag. He further emphasised the heightened risk of panic if sedatives are not given prior to exposure to nitrogen gas, reports the Daily Star.