A death row killer requested elaborate food for his final meal and drank Mountain Dew.
Carey Dale Grayson, 50, of Alabama, was imprisoned after killing hitchhiking mother Vickie Deblieux in 1994. He was sentenced to death by nitrogen gas, but requested a lavish seafood banquet before dying on Thursday evening.
Grayson rejected the breakfast and lunch trays in favor of coffee and Mountain Dew. In addition to seafood, he ordered soft tacos, beef burritos, tostadas, and chips with guacamole from local restaurants, followed by a Mountain Dew Blast.
Alabama began using nitrogen gas earlier this year to carry out some executions. The method involves placing a respirator gas mask over the face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen.
According to Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm, the nitrogen flowed for 15 minutes, and an electrocardiogram revealed Grayson no longer had a heartbeat about 10 minutes later.
Grayson, like the two others executed by nitrogen before him, shook occasionally before taking a series of gasping breaths.
The victim’s daughter later told reporters that her mother had her future stolen from her. However, she also condemned the decision to execute Grayson and “murdering inmates under the guise of justice.”
Grayson appeared to address the witness room, where state officials were present, but his words could not be heard. He raised both middle fingers at the beginning of the execution.
DeBlieux’s mutilated body was discovered at the bottom of a bluff near Odenville, Alabama, on February 26, 1994. She was hitchhiking from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to her mother’s house in West Monroe, Louisiana, when four teenagers offered her a ride.
Prosecutors claim the teens took her to a wooded area and assaulted and beat her. They returned and mutilated her body.
A medical examiner testified that her face was fractured enough to identify her from an earlier X-ray of her spine. Investigators said the teens were identified as suspects after one showed a friend one of DeBlieux’s severed fingers and boasted about the murder.
Jodi Haley, DeBlieux’s daughter, spoke with reporters at the media center on prison grounds following the execution. Haley was 12 when her mother was killed. She described her mother as “unique. She was impulsive. She was wild. “She was funny.”
Gov. Kay Ivey later said she was praying for the victim’s loved ones to find closure and healing. She stated: “Some thirty years ago, Vicki DeBlieux’s journey to her mother’s house and, ultimately, her life, were tragically cut short by Carey Grayson and three other men. She sensed something was wrong, tried to flee, but was brutally tortured and murdered.”
Grayson’s atrocities “were heinous, unimaginable, without an ounce of regard for human life and just unexplainably mean.” She further said: “An execution by nitrogen hypoxia (bears) no comparison to the death and dismemberment Ms DeBlieux experienced.”
Grayson was the only one of the four teenagers facing the death penalty because the other three were under the age of 18 when they were killed. Grayson was nineteen.
