Alabama agrees not to autopsy Keith Edmund Gavin after his execution this week

In a change from recent protocol, the state of Alabama will not perform an autopsy on Keith Edmund Gavin if he is executed this week, a state prisons spokeswoman said.

Gavin is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday evening for the 1998 capital murder of a north Alabama delivery truck driver. Court records show Gavin is not requesting any last-minute legal efforts seeking a stay in his execution. He has requested that the state not perform an autopsy on his remains, citing his Muslim faith.

The execution would take place at 6 p.m. in the death chamber at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. It would be the third execution in Alabama this year, with another scheduled for September .

“No autopsy will be performed on Keith Edmund Gavin,” said Kelly Betts, spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Corrections.  “His remains will be picked up by the attending funeral home.”

It’s policy for DOC officials to have the discretion to call for an autopsy to be performed on any inmate who dies while in custody. However, the cause of death following an execution is known. In the past, condemned inmates’ remains have undergone an autopsy after execution.

More: Alabama executes Jamie Mills by lethal injection

The crime

Gavin, 63, was sentenced to capital murder for the March 1998 murder of William Clayton Jr. a driver for Corporate Express Delivery Service. Clayton had gotten off work and drove his van to an ATM at a bank in Centre, in Cherokee County. Clayton withdrew cash to take his wife to dinner, state and federal court records show. Cherokee County is in northeast Alabama. Gavin went up to the van and shot Clayton at least two times, then drove off in the van.

An investigator with the district attorney’s office pulled the van over, and Gavin got out and fired shots at the investigator before running into the woods. He was captured a few hours later. Clayton died at the hospital, records show.

At the time, Gavin was on parole in Illinois after serving 17 years on a 34-year sentence for a murder conviction.

Gavin was convicted in November 1999 of capital murder in Claytons’ death, and the jury recommended the death penalty by a 10-2 vote. The trial judge took the recommendation and sentenced Gavin to death. He also sentenced Gavin to life in prison for the attempted murder charge.

More: Nitrogen gas execution: Kenneth Smith convulses for four minutes in Alabama death chamber

Alabama executions buck national trend

Alabama is "outlier" when it comes to executions, according to a statement from the Equal Justice Initiative, a national criminal justice and legal advocacy nonprofit headquartered Montgomery.

“As death sentences and executions continue to trend down nationwide, Alabama is responsible for an outsized share of executions, putting to death two of the nine people executed so far in 2024,” the EJI statement on Gavin’s pending execution reads. “No state − not even Texas − has executed more people than Alabama this year. And within the next three months, Alabama plans to raise its total to four people killed by the State.”

The execution of Alan Eugene Miller by nitrogen hypoxia has been scheduled for the 30-hour period from midnight Sept. 26 to 6 a.m. Sept. 27. If Gavin and Miller’s executions occur, they will mark the third and fourth executions of 2024 in Alabama.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has requested that the Alabama Supreme Court authorized the execution of Carey Dale Grayson by nitrogen hypoxia. The state’s high court has not authorized the execution. If authorization is handed down, Gov. Kay Ivey will set the execution date.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama agrees not to autopsy Keith Edmund Gavin after his execution this week