Governor Kay Ivey sent an official order of execution to Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) commissioner John Hamm on Monday, authorizing the November nitrogen hypoxia execution for Carey Dale Grayson, 49, who kidnapped and murdered a female hitchhiker in 1994, along with several accomplices.
The Alabama Supreme Court authorized Grayson's execution last week. On Monday, Ivey scheduled the execution window between midnight on Thursday, November 21, and 6 a.m. on Friday, the following day.
This would be the third nitrogen hypoxia execution in the United States. To date, Alabama is the only state in the nation to perform an execution using the method. The first was Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was executed in January. The second such execution is scheduled for Alan Eugene Miller between midnight on September 26 and midnight on September 27. Ivey stated in her order that she had no intentions of granting clemency in Grayson's case.
Grayson is still amid appeals, arguing against the state's protocol used to kill Smith earlier this year.
Court records state Grayson was one of four men convicted of torturing and murdering Vicki Lynn DeBlieux before throwing her off a cliff. Grayson was 19 at the time of the murder. All of Grayson's compatriots were also sentenced to death. However, two had their death sentences commuted after a Supreme Court ruling banning capital punishment for those under 18.
Court records state that on the night of Feb. 21, 1994, four teenagers, including Grayson, Kenny Loggins, Trace Duncan and Louis Mangione, all of whom had been drinking alcohol and using drugs, saw DeBlieux hitchhiking on I-59 at the Trussville exit in Jefferson County. They offered to take her to Louisiana; instead, they took her to a wooded area on the pretense of picking up another vehicle.
After arriving in the wooded area, they all got out of the vehicle and began to drink. Grayson and the others threw bottles at Deblieux, who started to run from them. They tackled her to the ground and began to kick her repeatedly. When they noticed that she was still alive, one of them stood on her throat, supported by Grayson, until she gurgled blood and said, "Okay, I'll party," and then died.
The group then put her body and luggage in the back of a pickup truck and threw Deblieux over the edge of Bald Rock Mountain. This came after court records say they removed her clothes and a ring and "played with her body." After taking one of their group home, the remaining crew returned to the body, where they began to "mutilate the body by stabbing and cutting her 180 times, removing part of a lung, and removing her fingers and thumbs."
"The medical examiner found the following injuries: almost every bone in her skull was fractured, every bone in her face was fractured at least once, lacerations on the face over these fractures, a missing tooth, left eye was collapsed, right eye was hemorrhaged, tongue discolored, 180 stab wounds (postmortem), two large incisions in her chest, her left lung had been removed and all her fingers and both thumbs were cut off," court records state, adding, "The medical examiner opined that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and that she was alive during the beating."
In an appeal, Grayson admits to throwing a beer bottle at DeBlieux but denies taking part in the mutilations.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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