The 10th Execution of 2024
Keith Edmund Gavin was executed by lethal injection on
July 18, 2024, making him the third man Alabama has executed in 2024.
Gavin was sentenced to death on the 10-2 recommendation of a jury, Alabama and Florida are the only states that authorize execution with less than a unanimous vote of the jurors.
The 64-year-old was put to death for the March 1998 murder
of William “Bill” Clayton Jr. in Cherokee County. Clayton was gunned down near
an ATM while getting cash to take his wife on a date that evening.
Gavin’s execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. It happened at
the scheduled time, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case
around 5:15 p.m.
That denial came after he filed a handwritten appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday evening
challenging a state judge’s dismissal of his motion to stay the execution
because the judge would not waive the filing fees - finding
that Gavin had enough money in his prison account.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall commented on the
execution, sending a statement to the media: “There is no doubt about Gavin’s
guilt for this heinous offense. In 1998, Gavin was identified by four
witnesses, including his own cousin, for walking up to a Corporate Express van
outside a Regions Bank, where he shot and killed the driver, William Clayton.
He subsequently stole the van and drove off with the victim as Clayton’s life
slipped away.”
“William Clayton was 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. 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.”
Gov. Kay Ivey also made a statement. “After a Cherokee
County courier, William Clayton, Jr., finished his day’s work, he stopped at an
ATM so he could treat his wife to dinner, only to be robbed of his life by
Keith Gavin. After receiving a death sentence, Mr. Gavin appealed time after
time for years to avoid justice, but failed at every attempt. Today, that
justice was finally delivered for Mr. Clayton’s loved ones.”
She continued, “I offer my prayers for Mr. Clayton’s family
and friends who still mourn his loss all these years later.”
Execution
The curtains to the three viewing rooms opened 6:09 p.m.
When the curtain opened, Gavin was in the execution chamber
and strapped onto the gurney in a standard white sheet. His imam, dressed in a
black robe, was speaking and Gavin’s lips were moving. Their conversation
couldn’t be heard in the viewing rooms.
At 6:11 p.m., Holman warden Terry Raybon read the state’s
death warrant as Gavin’s lips continue to move.
When the warden offered him the microphone to say his last
words, Gavin said, “I love my family.” He then followed that statement with
several words in Arabic.
His lips continued to move as he stretched both hands
against the straps on the gurney with his index fingers pointed upward.
Gavin then leaned his head back and closed his eyes. His
mouth fell slightly open as his imam appeared to continue speaking or in
prayer. Shortly after, the imam stepped back from the gurney.
At 6:19 p.m., a corrections officer performed a standard
consciousness check by yelling Gavin’s name, brushing his eyelid, and pinching
his left arm. The check is intended to make sure an inmate is unconscious from
the first drug before administering the two other drugs that stop the heart and
lungs.
At 6:20 p.m.., Gavin appeared to take his last breath.
The curtains closed at 6:25 p.m.
Matthew Clayton, the youngest of Bill Clayton’s seven
children witnessed the execution and talked to reporters following an Alabama
Department of Corrections press conference.
He called his dad “the last victim of Keith Edmund Gavin.”
Gavin committed the fatal shooting while on parole for
another murder in Illinois.
On behalf of his family, Matthew Clayton thanked Ivey for
standing for principles and “creating a line in the sand to let violent
criminals know that taking the life of innocent individuals will not be
tolerated in the state.”
He thanked the Attorney General’s Office for their
dedication and hard work, and law enforcement for their apprehension of Gavin.
Matthew Clayton described his father as a large man 6 feet
and 6 inches, weighing about 280 pounds. He was a gregarious, fun person, said
Matthew Clayton, and a devoted husband of 38 years to his mother. Bill Clayton
was in the Army in the Korean War, and was a man with rural American values.
“I have often described him as a slice of Americana,” said
Matthew Clayton. “He had an incredible work ethic from his roots as an Alabama
farm boy.”
“It’s quite unfortunate his final years were taken from him
in such a brutal way.”
Matthew Clayton said his family was told Gavin was
indoctrinated to gang violence at an early age in Chicago. They were told that
when Gavin was a teenager he killed another gang member, but that killing
didn’t result in a conviction. Gavin then committed another murder at 19 -- which
was the crime he was on parole for when he fatally shot Bill Clayton.
“For us it’s always been a question as to, could the state
of Illinois done a better job at protecting their citizenry and protecting the
people of this country. Could that have prevented the murder of Bill
Clayton...”
Final hours
Earlier Wednesday, prison officials gave a rundown of
Gavin’s past 24 hours, including visitors and final meals.
On Wednesday his visitors were spiritual advisor Aswan Adul
Addarr, attorneys Neil Conrad and Daniel Epstein. He refused breakfast, but had
snacks of Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream Potato Chips, Lay’s Plain Potato
Chips, and a chocolate Hersey Bar with almonds. He refused his lunch and dinner
meals. He had no phone calls on Wednesday.
Thursday, he was visited by friend Lauren Gill, attorneys
Kelly Huggins, Neil Conrad and Daniel Epstein. Gavin refused his breakfast, but
had ice cream and Mountain Dew.
He accepted his lunch meal and refused his final meal. He
did not make any special requests.
Prison officials also said Gavin’s execution witnesses were
attorneys Neil Conrad and Daniel Epstein, friend Lauren Gill, and spiritual
advisor Aswan Abdul Addarr.
Earlier Thursday, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office
responded to Gavin’s appeal to the nation’s high court. The office said the
appeal was “purely a state-law issue.”
“Second, a stay of execution would only serve to delay
Gavin’s execution and not result in relief, as the claims he raises are
meritless. Finally, the public interest weighs in favor of allowing the State
to carry out his execution, and Gavin’s multi-decade delay should not be
excused.”
Gavin, whose attorneys have not responded to repeated
requests for comment from AL.com, was executed via Alabama’s three-drug lethal
injection procedure. He did not opt-in to dying by nitrogen gas—a novel method
Alabama first tried in January with the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith—when
inmates on Alabama Death Row had the opportunity to do so in June 2018.
Alabama’s lethal injection protocol requires two intravenous
lines for the three-drug lethal injection cocktail. Alabama Department of
Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the execution team stuck Gavin three
times for the required two IV lines.
The process did not cause delays in the execution, as
executions prior have stretched into the night and early morning hours because
of issues with IV lines.
He was the second lethal injection this year. Jamie Ray
Mills was executed in May. And, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office is
seeking execution orders for at least two more men later this year.
The state is set to have its second nitrogen execution in
September. Alan Miller, who survived a lethal injection attempt in 2022, is set
to be suffocated using nitrogen gas. So far, Alabama is the only state in the
country to have used the new method.
Lawsuits
While Gavin did not specifically challenge Alabama’s fatal
injection cocktail in the courts leading up to his execution, he did argue that
his devout Muslim
faith requires his body to be kept intact after his death and that he
didn’t want a state autopsy.
After a brief legal battle in state court, the
state obliged his request. “No autopsy will be performed on Keith
Edmund Gavin,” said a statement from the Alabama Department of Corrections.
“His remains will be picked up by the attending funeral home.”
And, despite that same lawsuit saying Gavin wouldn’t be
fighting his impending death, days later Gavin filed a handwritten motion to
another judge. He asked for a stay of execution, without involving his
attorneys, and for a status that allows poor people to have court filing fees
waived.
Cherokee County Circuit Court Judge Shaunathan C. Bell on
July 10 ruled that Gavin had more than enough in his prison account to pay the
filing fee and denied his request. The judge also dismissed Gavin’s motion for
a stay.
That was the case that Gavin later appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court.
Crime
William C. “Bill” Clayton Jr. was a Korean War veteran who
retired after working 15 years for L&N Railroad and another decade at
AmSouth Bank, according to his obituary. In retirement, the father of seven
took a contract job making deliveries for Corporate Express Delivery Systems,
Inc.
Just after 6:30 p.m. on March 6, 1998, the 68-year-old
Birmingham man’s life ended when he crossed paths with Gavin, who had just
arrived in downtown Centre. He had come from Illinois, where he had recently
been paroled after serving 17 years of a 34-year sentence for murder.
Clayton had just finished making his deliveries for the day
and had stopped in his work van at the Regions Bank in downtown Centre to get
cash from the ATM. He was planning to take his wife on a date that evening.
He never got to take his wife to dinner.
Gavin shot Clayton while attempting to rob him at the ATM,
according to court records. Then, Gavin pushed him into the passenger seat of
the van and drove off.
Several witnesses, including Gavin’s cousin that had
traveled from Illinois with him, identified Gavin as the gunman.
Gavin’s cousin testified that when they stopped at the
intersection near the courthouse and the Regions Bank Gavin got out of his
cousin’s vehicle and approached a van that was parked nearby. The cousin
testified he thought Gavin was going to ask the driver of the van for
directions. However, when he looked up, he saw that the driver’s side door of
the van was open, and Gavin was holding a gun. The cousin stated that he
watched as Gavin fired two shots at the driver of the van. The cousin testified
he fled the scene.
An investigator with the Cherokee County District Attorney’s
Office testified at Gavin’s trial that he was returning to Centre from Fort
Payne when he heard over the radio that there had been a shooting and that both
the shooter and the victim were traveling in a white van with lettering on the
outside. As he proceeded toward Centre, the investigator said, he saw a van
matching the description given out over the radio and followed it.
At one point the van stopped, a man the investigator
identified as Gavin got out and fired a round of shots.
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