In response to the execution of Carey Grayson by the state of Alabama, TJ Riggs, Amnesty International USA’s Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator for the State of Alabama, said the following:
“While most of the world has moved away from the cruel and inhuman practice of the death penalty, it’s shameful that Alabama just carried out its sixth execution this year, infamously, the most executions of any U.S. state in 2024 and the highest yearly total for Alabama since 2011 when 6 people were also executed.
“There is no humane way to take somebody’s life. This is the third person the state of Alabama has executed using the new and largely untested method of nitrogen hypoxia. Alabama must devote resources to alternatives to the death penalty that would better address crime at its roots and protect human rights.
“The prosecutor in Carey Grayson’s case was inconsistent with his claims against Grayson and the other co-defendants and misled the jury. This use of inconsistent claims flouted the UN Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors. This execution — like all executions, no matter the circumstances — was a violation of human rights. Governor Kay Ivey should have taken the opportunity to grant Carey Grayson clemency and commute his death sentence and take steps towards abolition, instead of overseeing yet another execution in her state.
“The death penalty is too flawed to fix. Alabama should move toward abolishing this cruel practice once and for all. Issuing a moratorium on its use of the death penalty would be a good place to start before more people are caught in Alabama’s machinery of death.”
Additional information:
- In 1996, Carey Grayson became the last of four young males to be convicted of a 1994 murder. Through an Urgent Action, Amnesty International members across the world asked Governor Kay Ivey to commute his sentence. As written in the Urgent Action: At the four separate trials, the prosecutor used mutually incompatible theories, claiming each defendant was the most culpable. In 2004, Alabama told the US Supreme Court that Carey Grayson was not the most culpable. His is the sole death sentence to survive on appeal (the other three are serving life sentences). He was 19 at the time of the crime, emerging from a childhood marked by abuse, neglect, and bipolar disorder.
- In 2023, after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia, the U.S. was the fifth country in the world when it comes to highest number of known executions
- In 2024, nine states across the U.S. are on track to put to death 25 people, potentially surpassing last year’s total of 24 if all executions are carried out as scheduled.
- Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and under any circumstances, regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The organization considers the death penalty a violation of the right to life as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
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