Carey v. State of Alabama

Carey Dale Grayson, an Alabama death row inmate, appealed the district court's denial of his motion for a preliminary injunction to halt his scheduled execution by nitrogen hypoxia on November 21, 2024. Grayson was convicted for the 1994 murder of Vickie Deblieux, a hitchhiker he and three other teenagers brutally killed and mutilated. On November 13, 2024, the State of Alabama filed its response brief in the Eleventh Circuit, defending the nitrogen hypoxia protocol and arguing that Grayson's claims were speculative and did not establish an unacceptable risk of pain. The Eleventh Circuit heard oral argument and affirmed the district court's denial. Grayson then filed an emergency application for a stay of execution with the U.S. Supreme Court, which was denied on November 21, 2024. Grayson was executed that evening by nitrogen hypoxia at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility.

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of Grayson's motion for a preliminary injunction. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Grayson's application for a stay of execution on November 21, 2024. Grayson was executed by nitrogen hypoxia on November 21, 2024, at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.

Whether Alabama's nitrogen hypoxia execution protocol violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment due to an alleged risk of conscious suffocation and severe pain. Grayson argued that the method creates an unconstitutional risk, while the State contended that his claims were speculative and that the district court correctly found the protocol did not create an unacceptable risk of pain.

The case marked Alabama's third execution by nitrogen hypoxia, a method only used in the United States. It intensified national debate over the constitutionality and humanity of nitrogen gas as an execution method, with witnesses describing the process as "torture". The execution also drew attention to the sentencing of individuals who committed crimes as juveniles—Grayson was 19 at the time of the murder—and the broader implications of executing those convicted in their youth.