Alabama Governor Orders Execution: Keith Edmund Gavin Faces Justice for 1998 Murder

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has ordered Keith Edmund Gavin’s execution in July for the 1998 murder of courier William Clayton Jr. Gavin’s fatal injection is set for midnight on July 17 and 6 a.m. on July 19 at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

The longer time window for carrying out the execution was set because Alabama mishandled certain lethal injections, which had to be halted when they could not be completed before midnight on the scheduled dates.

Gavin will be executed with a three-drug combo, not nitrogen hypoxia. In January, the United Nations Human Rights Commission stated that the nitrogen procedure was unproven and could subject those being executed to “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, or even torture.”

Previously, the Louisiana Supreme Court issued death warrants that were valid for only 24 hours. The governor now determines the timing for executions.

William Clayton, Jr., was slain in March 1998.

Gavin was condemned to death when the murder was declared capital because it occurred during a first-degree robbery.

According to an Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals petition, Clayton was a contract courier who was shot and killed shortly after 6:30 p.m. on March 6, 1998, while seated in a Corporate Express Delivery Systems vehicle outside Regions Bank in Centre.

Larry Twilley testified that he witnessed Gavin unlock the van door and shoot the driver twice. According to the evidence, the shooter forced the driver to the passenger’s side, entered the van, and drove off.

Twilley eventually identified the shooter as Gavin.

A second witness, Gavin’s cousin Dewayne Meeks, witnessed the crime and identified Gavin as the offender, according to the court documents. Meeks claimed he drove Gavin to Tennessee from Chicago because he said he wanted to find a woman he met in February.

Meeks said that he observed Gavin exit their car and approach a van near Center, Alabama. He assumed Gavin was going to ask the van driver for instructions.

Instead, he stated that Gavin shot the vehicle driver. Meeks claimed he saw Gavin fire two rounds at the vehicle driver. Soon after Gavin shot and killed Clayton, Meeks claimed he fled the scene, with Gavin following in the van, seeking to persuade Meeks to halt.

Meeks refused to stop, claiming he was terrified, and returned to Chicago.

Meeks was first indicted for capital murder, but the allegation was ultimately dropped.