An Alabama death row inmate was scheduled executed Thursday night, state officials said. Keith Gavin was sentenced to die for the 1998 murder of Bill Clayton. The deliveryman was gunned down near an ATM in Cherokee County, after withdrawing money to take his wife on a date. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued the following statement:
Tonight, Keith Gavin was executed by lethal injection after having been convicted by a jury of his peers for the murder of William Clinton Clayton, Jr. in Centre, Alabama.
There is no doubt about Gavin’s guilt for this heinous offense. In 1998, Gavin was identified by four witnesses, including his own cousin, for walking up to a Corporate Express van outside a Regions Bank, where he shot and killed the driver, William Clayton. He subsequently stole the van and drove off with the victim as Clayton’s life slipped away.
William Clayton was a devoted father of seven who had just finished his workday and had stopped to get cash for a date with his wife. He was slain in cold blood by a repeat murderer. I cannot imagine the shock, pain, and frustration that William’s family has endured over the last 26 years. I pray his family finds solace in the long-awaited justice by the State of Alabama.