A man convicted of fatally shooting a delivery driver during a robbery attempt in 1998 was executed by chemical injection Thursday in Alabama, reports the AP. Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, was pronounced dead at 6:32pm at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in southwest Alabama, authorities said. He was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of 68-year-old courier service driver William Clayton Jr. in Cherokee County on March 6, 1998. Clayton had just finished work and was getting money at an ATM to take his wife to dinner, according to trial testimony.
"Justice was finally delivered for Mr. Clayton's loved ones," Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement. "I offer my prayers for Mr. Clayton's family and friends who still mourn his loss all these years later." The execution began shortly after the US Supreme Court turned down Gavin's request for a stay of execution, which he had filed himself in a handwritten document. "I love my family," Gavin said in his final statement at about 6:10pm, which appeared to be followed by a few words that were not audible. Gavin, who is Muslim, appeared to move his lips in prayer as his spiritual adviser stood beside the gurney. He had a finger lifted on both hands in what appeared to be the Islamic gesture in deference to Allah. He had successfully sued to avoid an autopsy based on his religious beliefs.
As a sedative began flowing through the IV line, his head, which had been lifted, fell back on the gurney, and Gavin appeared to lose consciousness. At about 6:20pm, a corrections officer performed a consciousness check—saying his name, brushing his eyelids, and pinching his arms—which is done before the final two drugs are administered. Soon afterward, his breathing faded.
(More
death penalty stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
