Alabama sets execution dates for Gavin and Mills over fatal ATM, home crimes

In a recent announcement made by Governor Kay Ivey, convicted killer Keith Edmund Gavin has been given an execution date for his role in the murder of William Clinton Clayton Jr. In 1998. The lethal injection is scheduled to take place between midnight on July 18 and 6am on July 19 at a correctional facility in Alabama, following authorization from the state Supreme Court last week. Gavin was found guilty of capital murder after shooting Clayton during an attempted robbery while he withdrew money from an ATM to take home for dinner as part of his delivery job. The victim’s wife happened to be nearby and witnessed her husband being pushed into their van by the perpetrator, who then drove off in the stolen vehicle. Gavin was identified as a suspect through two eyewitnesses – one being an investigator he shot at during pursuit, while another witness saw him with his cousin seconds before committing the crime. This is not the first time that Gavin has been convicted of murder; 17 years earlier in Illinois, he served over half of a 34-year sentence for similar offenses before being released on parole just months prior to Clayton’s killing. Jamie Mills also received an execution date from Alabama authorities after his conviction for the brutal murders of a couple during a robbery in 2004; he will be put to death by lethal injection at the end of May this year, according to reports.