A federal appeals court shot down a last minute plea from an Alabama death row inmate fighting against the "inhuman" execution method in which he is slated to be killed.
The execution of Carey Dale Grayson, 49, via nitrogen hypoxia will move forward Thursday, a panel of three judges ruled Monday, upholding a lower court's decision.
"Given the evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing, the district court's factual findings are not clearly erroneous," U.S. Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan wrote in the opinion of the court, according to the Alabama Reflector. "And based on these findings, the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Mr. Grayson failed to show a substantial likelihood of success on his claim that aspects of the nitrogen hypoxia protocol violate the Eighth Amendment."
"Mr. Grayson presented 'little evidence' about his 'unsubstantiated assertion' that alleged deficiencies with the mask and its fitting increase the likelihood of the introduction of oxygen which would prolong the execution process and possibly result in a hypoxia-induced injury," the opinion read.
Grayson has spent 30 years on death row for his part in the 1994 tortuous murder of 37-year-old hitchhiker Vicki Deblieux, who was on her way to visit her mother.
When asked about the timing of Grayson's execution a week before Thanksgiving, Gov. Kay Ivey shot back: "Did Carey Grayson give any consideration to the fact that he robbed Vicki DeBlieux and her family of now 30 Thanksgivings?" according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
In a desperate attempt to stop his visit to the death chamber, his defense team have argued nitrogen hypoxia is cruel and unusual punishment, violating his constitutional right.
But U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker, Jr. refuted their argument earlier this month, stating in his ruling the "evidence and allegations amount to speculation, a speculative parade of highly unlikely events, and scientific controversy at best. They fall well short of showing that the nitrogen hypoxia protocol creates an unacceptable risk of pain, let alone superadded pain," according to AL.com.
Huffaker also denied the convicted killer's request to be given a fatal dose of fentanyl prior to his execution, but is considering permitting a mild sedative, the outlet reported.
Earlier this year, Ivey said she had no intention of granting Grayson – who was 19 at the time of the murder – clemency for his part in the kidnapping and torture of Deblieux, whose naked and dismembered body was discovered at the bottom of a cliff in St. Clair County, Alabama.
An autopsy revealed she was stabbed more than 180 times. She died from blunt force trauma to the head and possible asphyxiation, a coroner determined, according to the outlet.
Grayson was also convicted of one count of first-degree intentional murder during a kidnapping and intentional murder during a robbery, according to the Reflector. He was sentenced to death. Kenny Loggins, 17, Trace Duncan, 17, and Louis Mangione, 16, were co-defendants in his case and each sentenced to life in prison.
