Jodi Haley’s mother, Vickie Deblieux, was murdered in 1994.
On Thursday, Alabama executed Carey Dale Grayson, one of the men responsible for her death. After the inmate’s execution via nitrogen hypoxia, Haley spoke at a news conference condemning the state’s actions.
“Society failed this man as a child, and my family suffered because of it,” she said. “Murdering inmates under the guise of justice needs to stop.”
She told reporters that Grayson, 50, suffered extensive physical and mental abuse as a child, noting how adults around him allegedly put out cigarettes on his skin. “I have to wonder how all this slips through the cracks of our justice system,” she said, adding that no one will know the positive impact Grayson could’ve had on lives.
“Revenge to me, eye for an eye justification... it's not right,” Haley said. “No one should have the right to take a person's possibilities, days, moments, life.”
All of those things were taken from her mother when she was murdered, Haley said, describing her mother as unique, funny and gorgeous.
“I don’t know what it is like to have a mother while going through life, graduation, marriage, children, hurts and joys,” she told reporters. “I’ve had to experience life without her presence because all of those opportunities were stolen from her.”
On February 21, 1994, Deblieux, 37, was hitchhiking to her mother’s home in Louisiana. Four teenagers — Louis Mangione, Kenny Loggins, Trace Duncan and Grayson — picked her up in Jefferson County, Alabama. The teens had been drinking alcohol and using drugs at the time.
They told Deblieux they’d drop her off in Louisiana but took her to a wooded area, where they told her they were picking up another car. The teens then started to throw bottles at her. She tried running away but the teens tackled her to the ground and repeatedly kicked her.
Once they realized she was alive, one of the teenagers stood on her throat, causing her to gurgle blood until she died.
The four young men put her body in the back of a pickup truck and drove it to Bald Rock Mountain. There, they removed her clothing and a ring, abused her body and threw it off a cliff. They later drove to a car wash to wash out the blood.
Three of the teenagers, including Grayson, returned to the mountain to mutilate her body. Officials say they stabbed and cut her 180 times, removing a piece of her lung, her fingers and thumbs.
Grayson’s girlfriend found the men sleeping in the truck the following morning. They were covered in blood and mud. Grayson told her the stains on his clothes came from a dog he had interacted with.
Three rock climbers found Deblieux’s body days later. A medical examiner determined that every bone in her skull and face had been fractured. She had two incisions in her chest, where her left lung had been removed.
Grayson was convicted of capital murder in 1996. The jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. Grayson had previously requested he be executed by nitrogen hypoxia. Alabama has executed two other inmates using the method — Kenneth Eugene Smith and Alan Eugene Miller.
When asked if he’d like to make a statement before his execution at the William C Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Grayson told the warden: “For you, you need to f*** off,” the Associated Press reported. He then raised both middle fingers and appeared to address state officials and witnesses in the room with a gas mask strapped to his face.
Officials abruptly cut off his mic because “That was enough,” John Q Hamm, Alabama Department of Corrections commissioner, told reporters. “He's cussed out most of our employees tonight, so we were not going to give him the opportunity to just spew that profanity.”
The curtain opened at 6:06 p.m. and nitrogen flowed for 15 minutes. Grayson was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. On the day of his execution, Grayson refused his breakfast and lunch trays. He requested soft tacos, beef burritos, tostada, chips, guacamole, and Mountain Dew Blast for his final meal.
