Alabama executes Keith Edmund Gavin for murder of father of seven

July 19, 2024

Gavin was executed by lethal injection after William Clayton Jr., a married father of seven described by his son as a gentle giant, was shot. It is the third execution in Alabama this year.

On Thursday, death row inmate Keith Edmund Gavin of Alabama was executed, more than two decades after he shot and killed a father of seven who had stopped at an ATM to withdraw money for an evening out with his wife.

Gavin, 64, was executed by lethal injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, making him the third inmate executed by the state this year and the 10th nationwide. He died at 6:32 p.m., prison officials said.

An Alabama jury found Gavin guilty of murdering William Clinton Clayton Jr., whose youngest son described him as a hard-working “gentle giant” in an interview with USA TODAY this week.

Gavin has maintained his innocence since 1998 and pointed the finger at a cousin who was with him at the crime scene.

Marty Roney, a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network, was one of those who witnessed the execution and said there was “no apparent difficulty” when the procedure began at 6:16 p.m. Gavin, whose eyes were closed, appeared to have taken his last breath at 6:20 p.m., Roney said.

“He didn’t seem to have any physical reaction during the procedure,” he said.

Here you will learn all about Gavin’s execution, his last meal, the case and the sacrifice.

Keith Edmund Gavin’s last meal, last words before death

Before he died, Gavin’s last words were: “I love my family,” Roney said. Gavin, who was Muslim, also apparently said several sentences in Arabic, he added.

The day before his execution, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections, Gavin refused breakfast, lunch and dinner, but did eat a bag of Ruffles potato chips with cheddar and sour cream, a bag of Lay’s potato chips with nothing on them and a Hersey candy bar with almonds.

Gavin refused his last meal on Thursday and did not express any special requests, the Department of Corrections said. However, he did eat some ice cream and drink Mountain Dew as a snack.

Also on Thursday, a spiritual advisor and his lawyers Neil Conrad and Daniel Epstein visited Gavin and were among the witnesses to the execution.

The Murder of William Clinton Clayton Jr.

On March 6, 1998, Clayton was preparing to go out to dinner with his wife of 38 years when the driver of the courier van stopped to withdraw money from a Regions Bank ATM in Centre, about 85 miles northeast of Birmingham.

Around the same time, Gavin had driven to the area from Chicago with his cousin Dewayne Meeks and arrived in downtown Centre just as Clayton was walking to the ATM, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY.

While the men stopped at an intersection near Regions Bank, Meeks testified, Gavin got out of the car, walked to the driver’s side of Clayton’s van and fired two shots. Meeks, who said he was scared, then drove away in his car while Gavin got into Clayton’s van — where Clayton was still sitting, bleeding — and followed Meeks, court records say.

A police chase followed, but ended with Gavin’s arrest in the woods. There, police later discovered the murder weapon, a .40 caliber Glock pistol. An officer who had learned of the shooting via radio found Clayton “barely alive” in the van and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards in the hospital.

Meeks was arrested weeks later in Chicago on murder charges, but prosecutors later dropped the charges. Gavin’s conviction was partly due to Meeks’ testimony.

Gavin, who had already been convicted of murder in 1982, argued in several appeals for a new murder trial that it was Meeks, not he, who shot Clayton. Meeks was never convicted of the murder, and two other witnesses positively identified Gavin as the shooter.

Clayton’s youngest son attends Gavin’s execution

Matt Joseph Clayton, William Clayton’s youngest child, told USA TODAY on Tuesday that he would attend Gavin’s execution to “represent his family” and recognize the efforts of state officials who “brought Mr. Gavin to justice.”

“Nobody wants to attend an execution, that must be clear,” he said. “However, given the work that has been done, I cannot decide not to attend.”

After the execution, Matt Clayton told USA TODAY that his father was a “piece of American culture” and a “farm boy from Alabama who grew up with rural values and had a tremendous work ethic.”

Matt Clayton said his 94-year-old mother lives independently and is “very healthy and energetic.” He did not say whether she or his other siblings were present at Thursday’s execution.

He called his father a “gentle giant” who worked hard to provide for him and his six siblings.

“I don’t think anyone expected his life to end this way,” said Matt Clayton, who was 28 when his father was shot. “His family certainly didn’t… It was pretty shocking.”

Statement by the Governor and Attorney General of Alabama following the execution

Alabama Republican Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement after Gavin’s execution that she was praying for “Mr. Clayton’s family and friends who continue to mourn his loss after all these years.”

“After being sentenced to death, Mr. Gavin continued to appeal for years to avoid justice, but failed each time,” she said. “Today, Mr. Clayton’s loved ones finally received justice.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement that “there is no doubt about Gavin’s guilt for this heinous crime.”

Marshall described Clayton as a “devoted father of seven who had just finished his day at work and stopped to get cash for a date with his wife.”

“He was murdered in cold blood by a repeat offender,” Marshall said. “I cannot imagine the shock, pain and frustration that Williams’ family has endured over the past 26 years. I pray that his family finds comfort in the long-awaited justice from the State of Alabama.”

Supreme Court rejected Gavin’s final request to stay execution

Shortly before his execution, Gavin submitted a handwritten petition to the U.S. Supreme Court requesting a stay of execution, arguing that he had been denied due process because he was indigent and could not pay the court fee.

The claim Gavin was referring to was made on July 10.

“In this case, justice should not be denied because the filing fee was not paid when it should have been waived because of plaintiff’s indigency,” Gavin wrote in his brief to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court denied Gavin’s request for a stay of execution, aligning with a lower court’s ruling that found there were sufficient funds in his prison account to pay court fees.

When is the next execution?

The next execution is scheduled for August 7. On that day, Texas will execute Arthur Lee Burton for the rape and murder of Nancy Adleman in 1997. The woman from Houston was found dead after she did not return home from a jog.

Gavin’s execution came just two days after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of Ruben Gutierrez in Texas, the 85-year-old retired teacher who was murdered in 1998. The court ruled Tuesday that a lower court must consider Gutierrez’s arguments for DNA testing before his execution can be scheduled, if at all.