Alabama executes death row inmate who sued to prevent post-execution autopsy

Keith Edmund Gavin cited his Muslim convictions when requesting an exemption from his autopsy

Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, was convicted of the 1998 murder of William Clayton Jr (Alabama Department of Corrections)

Alabama executed a man who was convicted for the 1998 murder of a delivery driver who was pulling money out of an ATM machine.

Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, died by lethal injection on Thursday evening. His last words were: “I love my family.” His time of death was 6.32pm CT.

Last week, Alabama agreed not to conduct a post-execution autopsy of Gavin on religious grounds. Gavin is Muslim, and said the autopsy would violate his religious convictions, NBC News reported.

He filed a lawsuit ahead of his execution to ensure the state would not conduct the autopsy. The state ultimately agreed to settle the complaint and agreed not to conduct the procedure.

Gavin was convicted of killing William Clayton Jr in Cherokee County, Alabama, in 1998.

At the time, Clayton was working as a courier driver, and had stopped at an ATM in downtown Centre, Alabama, on March 6. He was pulling out money after he finished working for the day with the intention of taking his wife out to dinner, according to court documents.

Prosecutors said that Gavin shot Clayton while trying to rob him at the ATM. After shooting him, Gavin pushed the wounded Clayton into the victim's van passenger seat and then drove away in the vehicle.

Police chased the van, and ended with Gavin fleeing on foot into the woods and firing shots at police officers as he ran off.

Gavin had been on parole in Illinois after serving 17 years of a 34-year prison sentence for murder, court records show.

His second murder trial ended with a conviction and a 10-2 vote for him to be executed. The judge ultimately agreed to impose the death penalty.

Since his conviction, many states have required unanimous votes to hand down death sentences.

Gavin's death penalty was nearly overturned in 2020 when a federal judge ruled that his counsel had been ineffective during his sentencing hearing by failing to address the mitigating circumstances of his youth and upbringing during the hearing.

He had been raised in a “gang-infested housing project in Chicago, living in overcrowded houses that were in poor condition, where he was surrounded by drug activity, crime, violence, and riots,” US District Judge Karon O Bowdre wrote at the time.

Her decision was overturned by a federal appeals court.

Gavin appealed his sentence on his own in the days before his execution, filing a handwritten letter asking for a stay of his execution. That request was rejected by a circuit judge and the Alabama Supreme Court.

Gavin’s execution is Alabama’s third execution this year, and the 10th execution in the US in 2024, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.