Stop Corporations from Profiting Off the Death Penalty

Days after Alabama scheduled its third execution by nitrogen hypoxia, intending to execute Carey Dale Grayson with gas suffocation on November 21st, lawyers for Grayson have asked a federal judge to block the execution order. 

In a motion filed Tuesday night in Alabama district court, attorneys representing Grayson challenged the constitutionality of the state's execution protocol for nitrogen gas, a novel and highly controversial approach that has only been used once before in January 2024. Grayson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Alabama in 1996.

They argued that Grayson shouldn't have to be subjected to a procedure that witnesses described as violent, prolonged and generally disturbing to watch after the first execution of Kenneth Smith, who was on death row after being convicted in a murder-for-hire plot. Alabama intends to execute Alan Eugene Smith on September 26th; nitrogen gas will be used during that execution as well.

Alabama's execution protocol for nitrogen hypoxia is heavily redacted, with key elements hidden from the public, the state's death row inmates and the attorneys who represent them. But there is no indication based on portions of the protocol that are available to view, or statements from those who witnessed Alabama's first execution in January, to suggest that inmates who die by this method are given an anesthetic or sedative prior to the administration of nitrogen gas — as they would be, for example, prior to receiving a lethal injection.

"Following Kenneth Smith's execution by nitrogen hypoxia—the first in history—and which, by nearly all accounts, was cruel and unusual, Alabama is doubling down by setting execution dates using the same protocol," Grayson's attorneys wrote in the latest court filing. "Rather than investigating what went wrong—as other states have done following issues with executions—Defendants have chosen to ignore clear and obvious signs the current Protocol contains major problems that will result in more unconstitutionally torturous executions if it continues to be employed."

That said, Alabama cannot develop and implement this novel killing mechanism on its own. It needs the support of the private sector. Multiple corporations have supported the state in its plan, some knowingly and some likely unwittingly. Worth Rises, a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to dismantling the prison industry and ending the exploitation of those it touches, is calling on supporters to help hold Allegro Industries accountable. Allegro Industries, a subsidiary of Walter Surface Technologies and owned by Onex Corporation, manufactured the gas masked used in Alabama's inhumane and controversial nitrogren gas execution protocol. None of these entities have been held accountable for their part in contributing to this cruel and inhumane state-sponsored executions.

To sign the Worth Rises petition to hold these companies accountable and call on them to stop profiting off the death penalty, you can sign your name and send a message here ---->>>> Stop Corporations from Profiting Off the Death Penalty!