An Alabama inmate was executed by lethal injection on Thursday evening, marking the state’s third execution this year, as confirmed by the state’s attorney general.
Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, was convicted on two counts of capital murder for the March 1998 fatal shooting of William Clayton Jr., a delivery driver who was sitting in his van outside a bank after stopping at an ATM to withdraw cash for a dinner with his wife.
Gavin had a previous conviction for murder, serving 17 years of a 34-year sentence before being released on parole, and attempted murder for shooting at a law enforcement officer. These prior convictions elevated his charge to capital murder, according to court documents.
A jury, in a 10-2 vote, recommended that Gavin be sentenced to death for his capital murder convictions, and a trial court accepted this recommendation.
Governor Kay Ivey set Gavin’s execution date at the end of April. Gavin filed a motion on July 12 to stay the execution, but it was denied on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, Gavin filed a lawsuit requesting that state officials not perform an autopsy on his body after the execution due to his religious beliefs. The Alabama Department of Corrections agreed to his request.
“Mr. Gavin is a devout Muslim,” stated the lawsuit, as reported by AL.com. “His religion teaches that the human body is a sacred temple, which must be kept whole. As a result, Mr. Gavin sincerely believes that an autopsy would desecrate his body and violate the sanctity of keeping his human body intact. Based on his faith, Mr. Gavin is fiercely opposed to an autopsy being performed on his body after his execution.”
Lethal injection has been the primary method for most modern-era executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a nonprofit that provides data and analysis on capital punishment.
States and jurisdictions can use a one-, two-, or three-drug combination for executions. The three-drug combination typically involves an anesthetic or sedative, followed by a drug to paralyze the prisoner, and a drug to stop the heart, according to the DPIC.
However, problems have arisen with lethal injections, leading to botched executions. Issues such as difficulty finding veins, clogged intravenous lines, and prisoners having violent reactions to the drugs have occurred. Additionally, there have been shortages of the drugs used for lethal injection.
Alabama recently authorized the use of nitrogen gas for executions. In January, Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first inmate to be executed with this new method.
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Alabama’s second execution this year occurred in May, when Jamie Ray Mills was put to death by lethal injection. Another inmate, Alan Eugene Miller, is scheduled to be executed by nitrogen gas in September.
