A journalist who witnessed the nitrogen gas execution of a convicted serial killer in Alabama says she locked eyes with the condemned man as he struggled and gasped for more than 15 minutes before being pronounced dead. The account, one of the most detailed to emerge from inside the execution chamber, raises fresh questions about the state's second use of nitrogen hypoxia and whether the method delivers the painless death officials have promised.
Lee Hedgepeth, a reporter who covered the case, told The Sun that he stood just feet from the gurney as Alabama put Carey Dale Grayson to death on November 21, 2024. Grayson, 50, had been convicted of the 1994 murder of Vickie Deblieux, a hitchhiker whose killing was among the most gruesome in the state's criminal history.
Hedgepeth described a scene far removed from the clinical, almost instantaneous death state officials had suggested nitrogen gas would produce. He said Grayson was conscious and moving for roughly 15 minutes after the gas began flowing through a mask strapped to his face.
The reporter said Grayson's body convulsed on the gurney. He described watching the condemned man's chest heave as he appeared to struggle for air, his eyes open and, at times, looking directly at the witnesses standing behind the glass partition.
"I stared into the killer's eyes during the execution. It took 15 agonising minutes."
Hedgepeth said the experience was unlike anything he had anticipated. He noted that Grayson appeared to remain aware far longer than officials had indicated he would, and that the physical reaction visible through the chamber window was difficult to watch regardless of the crime that had put Grayson there.
While the scene inside the death chamber was grim, the atmosphere outside the prison told a different story. Hedgepeth reported that a crowd had gathered near the facility and cheered when word spread that the execution had been carried out. The reaction reflected the depth of public anger over Grayson's crime, which had shocked the state three decades earlier.
Grayson was one of four people convicted in Deblieux's killing. Prosecutors established at trial that the 37-year-old Louisiana woman was hitchhiking through Alabama when Grayson and three others picked her up. She was beaten, stabbed, and mutilated. Parts of her body were later found scattered across a mountainside. The brutality of the crime made it one of the most notorious murder cases in Alabama history.
Grayson's execution marked only the second time Alabama used nitrogen hypoxia to carry out a death sentence. The state became the first in the nation to use the method in January 2024, when it executed Kenneth Smith. That execution also drew controversy after witnesses said Smith shook and convulsed on the gurney for several minutes.
Nitrogen hypoxia works by replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen, depriving the brain of oxygen. Proponents have argued the method causes unconsciousness within seconds and death shortly after, with minimal pain. Critics, including some medical professionals, have challenged those claims, pointing to the visible physical distress witnesses reported during both Alabama executions.
State officials maintained that Grayson's execution was carried out in accordance with the established protocol. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's office defended the procedure, stating that the method had been reviewed and approved through the state's legal process. Authorities have not publicly confirmed whether they consider the 15-minute duration to be within the expected range for nitrogen hypoxia.
The use of nitrogen gas has faced legal challenges since before Alabama first employed it. Death row inmates and civil liberties organizations have argued in court filings that the method poses an unacceptable risk of a prolonged, painful death, which they contend would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Federal courts allowed Alabama to proceed with both executions after the state argued that nitrogen hypoxia was a humane alternative to lethal injection, which had itself been plagued by problems. Alabama had paused executions in 2022 after a series of botched lethal injection attempts in which medical staff struggled to establish IV lines in condemned inmates.
Investigators and legal observers will need to determine whether the physical reactions Hedgepeth and other witnesses described indicate consciousness and suffering, or involuntary reflexes that occur after the brain has already lost awareness. That distinction sits at the center of ongoing litigation and will likely shape whether other states adopt nitrogen gas as an execution method.
Vickie Deblieux was 37 when she was killed in February 1994. She had been hitchhiking from her home in Louisiana, traveling through Alabama, when she encountered Grayson and his co-defendants. The group drove her to a remote area on Monte Sano Mountain near Huntsville.
Trial testimony established that Deblieux was subjected to hours of torture before she died. Her body was dismembered, and remains were scattered in a wooded area where hikers later discovered them. The case drew intense media coverage and public outrage across the state.
Grayson was 19 at the time of the murder. He was tried as an adult, convicted of capital murder, and sentenced to death. Three co-defendants also received sentences ranging from death to life in prison. Grayson spent roughly 30 years on death row before the state carried out his sentence.
No other state has used nitrogen hypoxia to execute a prisoner. Several states have authorized the method in statute, but none besides Alabama have moved forward with implementation. The witness accounts from both Alabama executions have become central evidence in the national debate over whether nitrogen gas should join lethal injection and electrocution as accepted execution methods.
Hedgepeth's account stands as one of the most vivid firsthand descriptions of the procedure. His decision to remain focused on Grayson's face throughout the process produced a record that both supporters and opponents of nitrogen hypoxia are likely to cite in future court proceedings.
Authorities have not announced changes to Alabama's nitrogen gas protocol following Grayson's execution. The state has additional inmates on death row, and officials have not publicly stated whether nitrogen hypoxia will be used in future cases or whether modifications to the procedure are under consideration.
When a state tells the public it has found a humane way to carry out the ultimate punishment, the eyes of a witness standing six feet from the gurney are the only real check on that promise.
