An Alabama inmate found guilty of murdering a hitchhiker 30 years ago on Thursday became the third person in America to be executed using nitrogen gas, furthering the ongoing debate about whether the method is an inhumane way to carry out death penalty sentences.

Grayson’s three accomplices managed to escape execution because they were under 18 at the time of Deblieux’s murder

Carey Dale Grayson is set to die by nitrogen hypoxia after being convicted of killing 37-year-old hitchhiker Vickie Deblieux in 1994.

ATMORE − The State of Alabama executed Carey Dale Grayson by nitrogen gas hypoxia Thursday evening for the brutal 1994 Jefferson County murder of a hitchhiker. It was Alabama's sixth execution for the year and the third in two months.

An Alabama prisoner convicted of the 1994 murder of a female hitchhiker is slated to become the third person executed by nitrogen gas

Prison officials in Alabama have executed convicted murderer Carey Dale Grayson, marking the state's sixth death sentence and third using the nitrogen gas method so far this year.

The execution is the 22nd in the U.S. this year and the sixth in Alabama, which has put three of the men to death using nitrogen gas.

An Alabama man convicted in the 1994 killing of a hitchhiker cursed at the prison warden and made obscene gestures with his hands shortly before he was put to death Thursday evening in the nation’s third execution using nitrogen gas.