Gavin was executed by lethal injection in the shooting death of William Clayton Jr., a married father of 7 described by his son as a gentle giant. It’s Alabama’s 3rd execution this year.
Alabama executed death row inmate Keith Edmund Gavin on Thursday, more than two decades after he fatally shot a father of seven who had stopped at an ATM to get money for a date night with his wife.
Gavin, 64, was executed by lethal injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, becoming the third inmate to be put to death by the state this year and the 10th in the nation. He died at 6:32 p.m., prison officials said.
An Alabama jury found Gavin guilty of murdering William Clinton Clayton Jr., whose youngest son described him as a hard-working “gentle giant” in an interview with USA TODAY this week.
Gavin had maintained his innocence since 1998, pointing the finger at a cousin who was at the crime scene with him.
Gavin’s execution comes just two days after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the Texas execution of Ruben Gutierrez in the 1998 murder of an 85-year-old retired schoolteacher. The high court ruled Tuesday that a lower court must look at Gutierrez’s arguments for DNA testing before his execution can be scheduled, if at all.
Marty Roney, a reporter with the Montgomery Advertiser − part of the USA TODAY Network − was among the witnesses to the execution and said there were “no apparent difficulties” when the process began at 6:16 p.m. Gavin, whose eyes were closed, appeared to have taken his last breath at 6:20 p.m., Roney said.
“He appeared to show no physical reaction during the process,” he said.
Here’s what to know about Gavin’s execution, his last meal, the case and the victim.
Keith Edmund Gavin’s last meal before death
The day before Gavin’s execution, he refused breakfast, lunch and dinner but ate a bag of Ruffles cheddar sour cream potato chips, a bag of Lay’s plain potato chips and a chocolate Hersey Bar with almonds, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Gavin refused his final meal Thursday and did not make any special requests, the corrections department said. He did eat some ice cream and drank Mountain Dew as a snack.
Also Thursday, a spiritual advisor and his attorneys, Neil Conrad and Daniel Epstein, visited Gavin and were among the witnesses to the execution.
William Clinton Clayton Jr.’s murder
On March 6, 1998, Clayton was preparing to take his wife of 38 years out to dinner. The courier van driver stopped to withdraw money from an ATM at Regions Bank in Centre, about 85 miles northeast of Birmingham.
Around the same time, Gavin had driven to the region from Chicago with his cousin, Dewayne Meeks, arriving in downtown Centre just as Clayton went to the ATM, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY.
While the men were stopped at an intersection near Regions Bank, Meeks testified that Gavin got out of the car, walked up to the driver’s side of Clayton’s van and fired two shots. Meeks, saying he was scared, then drove off in his car, while Gavin got in Clayton’s van − with Clayton still in it and bleeding out − and followed Meeks, court records say.
A police pursuit of the van ensued but ended with Gavin’s capture in the woods where police later discovered the murder weapon, a 40-caliber Glock pistol. An officer who heard about the shooting on his radio found Clayton “barely alive” in the van and he was pronounced dead shortly after at a hospital.
Meeks was arrested weeks later in Chicago on a murder charge in the case but prosecutors later dropped it. Gavin’s conviction was in part due to Meeks’ testimony.
Gavin detailed in several appeals for a new murder trial that Meeks was the one who shot Clayton and not him. Meeks has never been convicted in the crime, and two other witnesses positively identified Gavin as the shooter.
Clayton’s youngest son attends Gavin’s execution
Matt Joseph Clayton, William Clayton’s youngest child, told USA TODAY on Tuesday that he would be attending Gavin’s execution to “represent his family” and recognize the efforts of the state officials who “brought Mr. Gavin to justice.”
“No one wants to view an execution, so let’s be clear about that,” he said. “However, I cannot choose to not attend given the work that has been put forth.”
Matt Clayton said his mother, who is 94 years old, lives independently and is “very healthy and very vibrant.” He did not say if she or his other siblings attended the execution on Thursday.
He called his father a “gentle giant” who worked hard to help provide for him and his six siblings.
“I don’t think anyone anticipated that his life would end this way,” said Matt Clayton, who was 28 when his father was gunned down. “Certainly not his family … It was quite shocking.”
‘There is no doubt about Gavin’s guilt’
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall released a statement following Gavin’s execution, saying “there is no doubt about Gavin’s guilt for this heinous offense.”
Marshall called Clayton a “devoted father of seven who had just finished his workday and had stopped to get cash for a date with his wife.”
“He was slain in cold blood by a repeat murderer,” Marshall said. “I cannot imagine the shock, pain, and frustration that William’s family has endured over the last 26 years. I pray his family finds solace in the long-awaited justice by the State of Alabama.”
Keith Edmund Gavin’s body will not be autopsied
Gavin’s attorneys filed a lawsuit this month requesting that the state not perform an autopsy on his body following the execution because of his Islamic faith.
“His religion teaches that the human body is a sacred temple, which must be kept whole,” the lawsuit says. “Mr. Gavin sincerely believes that an autopsy would desecrate his body and violate the sanctity of keeping his human body intact.”
Alabama agreed to forgo the autopsy, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.
Source link : https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/07/18/keith-edmund-gavin-execution-alabama/74458512007/
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Publish date : 2024-07-18 20:22:30
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