AG Marshall, Gov. Ivey statements on execution of convicted murderer Carey Grayson
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Special to the News
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued the following statement last Thursday night after the execution of Carey Dale Grayson at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore:
“Alabama has successfully used nitrogen hypoxia to carry out Carey Grayson’s execution. He was convicted and unanimously sentenced to death for the murder of Vickie DeBlieux in 1994.
“Over 30 years ago, Grayson and his accomplices brutally murdered a complete stranger and mutilated her body. It takes a truly vicious monster to commit this kind of crime. Tonight, justice has been served.
My prayer for Vickie’s family is that they can find solace in the State of Alabama finally serving justice for their heartbreaking loss. And my hope is that one day it will not take three decades to provide justice for other victims of violent crimes.”
Attorney General Marshall cleared the execution to commence on November 21 at 6:11 p.m. Grayson’s time of death was 6:33 p.m.
Earlier that evening, Gov. Kay Ivey told Corrections Commissioner John Hamm that she would not exercise her clemency powers in the case and directed him to proceed with Grayson’s lawfully imposed death sentence for the 1994 capital murder of DeBlieux.
Ivey issued the following statement, “Some thirty years ago, Vicki DeBlieux’s journey to her mother’s house and ultimately, her life, were horrifically cut short because of Carey Grayson and three other men. She sensed something was wrong, attempted to escape, but instead, was brutally tortured and murdered. Even after her death, Mr. Grayson’s crimes against Ms. DeBlieux were heinous, unimaginable, without an ounce of regard for human life and just unexplainably mean. An execution by nitrogen hypoxia bares no comparison to the death and dismemberment Ms. DeBlieux experienced. I pray for her loved ones that they may continue finding closure and healing.”
The Alabama Department of Corrections reported that on November 20, Grayson had 11 visitors and three phone calls. On November 21, he had three visitors, two phone calls, refused his breakfast and lunch trays, and requested the following for his final meal: Soft tacos, beef burritos, tostada, chips, guacamole, and Mountain Dew Blast.
A brief press conference followed the execution at the Media Center with remarks from Alabama
Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm. In addition, Jodi Haley, the daughter
of Vickie DeBlieux, made a statement to the press.
The inmate’s remains will be released to the Escambia County Coroner and transported to the
Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences (Mobile Lab) for a postmortem examination.
Summary of Grayson’s Crimes:
On February 21, 1994, Vickie DeBlieux, 37, was dropped off by a friend at I-59 near Chattanooga, Tennessee, planning to hitchhike to her mother’s home in Louisiana. She was picked up at the Trussville exit in Jefferson County, by four teenagers, Carey Grayson, Kenny Loggins, Trace Duncan, and Louis Mangione, who had been drinking alcohol and using drugs. They offered to take DeBlieux to Louisiana, but instead they took her to a wooded area under the pretense of picking up another vehicle.
When they arrived to the wooded area, they exited the car and began drinking. Grayson and the others threw bottles at DeBlieux, who began to run from them. They tackled her to the ground and began kicking her repeatedly. After realizing she was still alive, one of them stood on her throat, supported by Grayson until she gurgled blood and died.
Grayson and his accomplices then put DeBlieux’s body in the back of a pickup truck and took her and her luggage to Bald Rock Mountain. After removing her clothing and a ring, they abused her body and threw her off a cliff. Afterwards they drove to a car wash in Pell City to wash out the blood. They also rummaged through her luggage before they hid the luggage in the woods.
After dropping off Mangione at home, they returned to Bald Rock Mountain where they mutilated DeBlieux’s body by stabbing and cutting her 180 times, removing part of a lung, and removing her fingers and thumbs. The next morning Grayson’s girlfriend found the three of them asleep in the truck covered in mud and blood. He said they got blood on them from a dog.
Vickie DeBlieux’s body was found on February 26, 1994, by three rock climbers. A medical examiner found that almost every bone in her skull was fractured, and every bone in her face was fractured at least once. Of her 180 postmortem stab wounds, she had two large incisions in her chest where her left lung was removed, and all of her fingers and thumbs were cut off.
At trial in January and February of 1996, Carey Grayson was convicted of capital murder. The jury unanimously recommended a sentence of death.
During litigation challenging Alabama’s plan to carry out that sentence via lethal injection, Grayson argued that he should instead be executed by nitrogen hypoxia. Alabama has now successfully used that method of execution three times this year.