Current:Home > StocksAlabama set to execute man for fatal shooting of a delivery driver during a 1998 robbery attempt -StockSource
Alabama set to execute man for fatal shooting of a delivery driver during a 1998 robbery attempt
View
Date:2025-04-15 16:24:13
A man convicted of killing a delivery driver who stopped for cash at an ATM to take his wife to dinner is facing scheduled execution Thursday night in Alabama.
Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, is set to receive a lethal injection at a prison in southwest Alabama. He was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of William Clayton Jr. in Cherokee County.
Alabama last week agreed in Gavin’s case to forgo a post-execution autopsy, which is typically performed on executed inmates in the state. Gavin, who is Muslim, said the procedure would violate his religious beliefs. Gavin had filed a lawsuit seeking to stop plans for an autopsy, and the state settled the complaint.
Clayton, a courier service driver, had driven to an ATM in downtown Centre on the evening of March 6, 1998. He had just finished work and was getting money to take his wife to dinner, according to a court summary of trial testimony. Prosecutors said Gavin shot Clayton during an attempted robbery, pushed him in to the passenger’s seat of the van Clayton was driving and drove off in the vehicle. A law enforcement officer testified that he began pursuing the van and the driver — a man he later identified as Gavin — shot at him before fleeing on foot into the woods.
At the time, Gavin was on parole in Illinois after serving 17 years of a 34-year sentence for murder, according to court records.
“There is no doubt about Gavin’s guilt or the seriousness of his crime,” the Alabama attorney general’s office wrote in requesting an execution date for Gavin.
A jury convicted Gavin of capital murder and voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. Most states now require a jury to be in unanimous agreement to impose a death sentence.
A federal judge in 2020 ruled that Gavin had ineffective counsel at his sentencing hearing because his original lawyers failed to present more mitigating evidence of Gavin’s violent and abusive childhood.
Gavin grew up 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,” U.S. District Judge Karon O Bowdre wrote.
A federal appeals court overturned the decision which allowed the death sentence to stand.
Gavin had been largely handling his own appeals in the days ahead of his scheduled execution. He filed a handwritten request for a stay of execution, asking that “for the sake of life and limb” that the lethal injection be stopped. A circuit judge and the Alabama Supreme Court rejected that request.
Death penalty opponents delivered a petition Wednesday to Gov. Kay Ivey asking her to grant clemency to Gavin. They argued that there are questions about the fairness of Gavin’s trial and that Alabama is going against the “downward trend of executions” in most states.
“There’s no room for the death penalty with our advancements in society,” said Gary Drinkard, who spent five years on Alabama’s death row. Drinkard had been convicted of the 1993 murder of a junkyard dealer but the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000 overturned his conviction. He was acquitted at his second trial after his defense attorneys presented evidence that he was at home at the time of the killing.
If carried out, it would be the state’s third execution this year and the 10th in the nation, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri also have conducted executions this year. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday halted the planned execution of a Texas inmate 20 minutes before he was to receive a lethal injection.
veryGood! (38)
Related
- Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
- How Dying Forests and a Swedish Teenager Helped Revive Germany’s Clean Energy Revolution
- Inflation cooled in June to slowest pace in more than 2 years
- A tiny invasive flying beetle that's killed hundreds of millions of trees lands in Colorado
- What to know about Tuesday’s US House primaries to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz
- Celebrity Makeup Artists Reveal the Only Lipstick Hacks You'll Ever Need
- Scott Disick Spends Time With His and Kourtney Kardashian's Kids After Her Pregnancy News
- Ruby Princess cruise ship has left San Francisco after being damaged in dock crash
- The Best Stocking Stuffers Under $25
- A man accused of torturing women is using dating apps to look for victims, police say
Ranking
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- Inflation is plunging across the U.S., but not for residents of this Southern state
- Ecocide: Should Destruction of the Planet Be a Crime?
- Farmers Insurance pulls out of Florida, affecting 100,000 policies
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- Rihanna Has Love on the Brain After A$AP Rocky Shares New Photos of Their Baby Boy RZA
- Shop the Cutest Travel Pants That Aren't Sweatpants or Leggings
- 8 Simple Hacks to Prevent Chafing
Recommendation
Trump suggestion that Egypt, Jordan absorb Palestinians from Gaza draws rejections, confusion
FBI Director Chris Wray defends agents, bureau in hearing before House GOP critics
Thom Browne's win against Adidas is also one for independent designers, he says
As the Climate Crisis Grows, a Movement Gathers to Make ‘Ecocide’ an International Crime Against the Environment
The Super Bowl could end in a 'three
Exxon announced record earnings. It's bound to renew scrutiny of Big Oil
In Final Debate, Trump and Biden Display Vastly Divergent Views—and Levels of Knowledge—On Climate
To all the econ papers I've loved before