The State of Alabama executed Carey Grayson by nitrogen suffocation today for his involvement with three other teens in the killing of a hitchhiker when he was just 19. Although the State has acknowledged he was not the most culpable, Carey Grayson is the only one of the four teens to face execution.
In 1994, four teenagers—Carey Grayson (19), Kenny Loggins (17), Trace Duncan (17), and Louis Mangione (16)—were arrested in the beating death of Vicki Deblieux, whose body was found with multiple post-mortem injuries.
The juveniles were tried separately by the same prosecutor, who improperly told each jury that the boy on trial was the ringleader—the one most deserving of the ultimate punishment. Kenny Loggins and Trace Duncan were sentenced to death; Louis Mangione was sentenced to life in prison.
Carey Grayson was the last one tried, in 1996. As new counsel later explained in federal court, the same prosecutor told his jury that he was the “leader of the pack” who was “driving the whole thing”—even after using the same language to describe Kenny Loggins at his trial and telling juries at Louis Mangione and Trace Duncan’s trials that it was “ludicrous” and an “illusion” to suggest that Carey Grayson was the ringleader, since the “only” evidence regarding him was that “[h]e drove the car.”
Prior to trial, Mr. Grayson’s court-appointed lawyers asked for free copies of the transcripts from the other boys’ trials, but the trial judge denied their request. As a result, defense counsel did not challenge the prosecution’s inconsistent theory at Mr. Grayson’s trial.
Carey Grayson was convicted and—after a penalty phase where his appointed counsel failed to find and present information about his very tragic background, including that he was severely neglected by his parents, went hungry for years after his mother died when he was 12, developed mental illness as a result of trauma, and the fact that he was homeless at age 15—sentenced to death.
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Roper v. Simmons that the death penalty cannot be imposed on juvenile offenders because their relative immaturity and lack of responsibility, vulnerability to negative influences and outside pressures, and capacity for change means they “cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders.” The Court wrote:
The susceptibility of juveniles to immature and irresponsible behavior means “their irresponsible conduct is not as morally reprehensible as that of an adult.” Their own vulnerability and comparative lack of control over their immediate surroundings mean juveniles have a greater claim than adults to be forgiven for failing to escape negative influences in their whole environment. The reality that juveniles still struggle to define their identity means it is less supportable to conclude that even a heinous crime committed by a juvenile is evidence of irretrievably depraved character. From a moral standpoint it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor’s character deficiencies will be reformed.
Roper barred the death penalty for Kenny Loggins and Trace Duncan because they were under 18, leaving Carey Grayson as the only one of the four boys to face execution—a result that even the State of Alabama recognized was arbitrary.
In a brief, the State of Alabama told the U.S. Supreme Court it was nonsensical to permit the death penalty for “Grayson, who was 19 at the time, but not for Loggins and Duncan, both of whom were 17 but plainly are every bit as culpable—if not more so—in [the victim’s] death.”1 Brief of the States of Alabama, Delaware, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Virginia as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005) (No. 03-633), 2004 WL 865268, at *10 (emphasis added).