An Alabama inmate scheduled to be executed next week has asked the state not to perform an autopsy on his body because of his devout Muslim faith.
Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, was convicted of capital murder in the March 1998 shooting death of delivery driver William Clinton Clayton Jr. when he stopped to withdraw money from an ATM. Seattle weather reported.
Gavin will be executed by lethal injection — the southern state’s primary method of execution — in an execution to be carried out at the William C. Holman Correctional Center outside Atmore between midnight on Wednesday, July 17, and 6 a.m. on Friday, July 19, according to Gov. Kay Ivey’s office.
While it is standard practice in the state of Alabama to perform an autopsy after an execution, Gavin asked through his lawyer that the act be banned after his death for religious reasons.
On Tuesday, William Califf, a spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, said they are “working on a resolution,” according to the outlet.
Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, is due to die by lethal injection on or about July 18.
The Alabama lethal injection chamber at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore is shown in this Oct. 7, 2002 file photo.
“Mr. Gavin is a devout Muslim. His religion teaches that the human body is a sacred temple that must be kept intact,” his lawyer wrote.
‘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 strongly opposes an autopsy being performed on his body after his execution.’
Last month, Gavin’s attorneys filed a lawsuit in state court in Montgomery after failing to meet with state officials to grant his request before his execution, which will be the state’s third this year.
They explained that the court filing was not an attempt to stay their clients’ execution, according to the outlet.
William C. Holman Correctional Facility where the execution will take place
Gavin’s victim, Clayton Jr., worked as a contract courier for Corporate Express Delivery Systems before his murder in 1998.
After Clayton Jr. completed his deliveries on March 6 of that year, he stopped by the bank to get money to take his wife out to dinner. Atmore News reported.
However, he would never make it home.
Clayton Jr. was fatally shot while sitting in his truck outside the Regions Bank in downtown Centre.
According to court documents, Gavin had previously been convicted of murder and attempted murder for shooting a law enforcement officer, leading to two counts of capital murder. CBS News previously reported.
A jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for Gavin and sentenced him to death.
As of January 2024, there are 24 states that have the death penalty and 23 that do not, while three others have a moratorium on it.
The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is generally reserved for especially heinous crimes in which a victim dies, but each state can determine what specific circumstances make a murder eligible for a death sentence.
As of January 2024, there are 24 states that have the death penalty, 23 that do not, and three that have a moratorium in effect, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Last year there were 24 executions in the United States, all of them carried out by lethal injection.
However, of the nine executions taking place in 2024, one will be carried out by the controversial new method: death by nitrogen hypoxia.
