Execution date set for Alabama man convicted of killing driver who stopped at ATM

The execution date for a man convicted in the 1998 fatal shooting of a delivery driver who had stopped at an ATM has been set for July 18, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Thursday.

Keith Edmund Gavin, 64, will be put to death by lethal injection, which is the state's primary execution method.

The announcement came a week after the Alabama Supreme Court authorized the execution to go forward. 

Gavin was convicted of capital murder for the shooting death of William Clinton Clayton, Jr. in Cherokee County in northeast Alabama. He was previously convicted of murder and attempted murder for shooting at a law enforcement officer, court documents said, which led to the decision to charge him with two counts of capital murder. 

Clayton, a delivery driver, was shot in his van when he stopped at an ATM to get money to take his wife to dinner, prosecutors said.
Witnesses said Gavin approached the vehicle and shot Clayton before stealing the van. An autopsy determined Clayton had three gunshot wounds from two bullets. 

A jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for Gavin. The trial court accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced him to death.

Gavin's attorney asked the court not to authorize the execution, arguing the state was moving Gavin to the "front of the line" ahead of other inmates who had exhausted their appeals.

The state is also scheduled to execute Jamie Mills by lethal injection on May 30. Mills was convicted for the 2004 slaying of a couple during a robbery.

Alabama in January carried out the nation's first execution using nitrogen gas, but lethal injection remains the state's primary execution method.

In:
• Alabama
• Homicide
• Crime
• Execution