Keith Gavin was executed in Alabama on 18 July 2024. He was convicted in 1999 of a murder committed in 1998 and sentenced to death on a jury vote of 10-2 for the death penalty. In 2020, a federal judge found that his legal representation at the sentencing phase had been constitutionally inadequate, but in 2022 the Court of Appeals reversed this decision. The Governor of Alabama declined to intervene, and after final appeals to the courts were rejected, the execution went ahead, the third this year in Alabama.
NO FURTHER ACTION IS REQUESTED. MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO SENT APPEALS.
On 18 July 2024, the US Supreme Court dismissed Keith Gavin’s final appeals without comment or dissent. The execution by lethal injection went ahead shortly after 6:15pm and 64-year-old Keith Gavin was pronounced dead at 6:32pm.
After the execution, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said: “After receiving a death sentence, Mr. Gavin appealed time after time for years to avoid justice, but failed at every attempt,” she said. “Today, that justice was finally delivered for [the victim’s] loved ones.”
The state’s Attorney General, Steve Marshall, said: “There is no doubt about Gavin’s guilt for this heinous offense… I cannot imagine the shock, pain, and frustration that [the victim]’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.”
There have been 10 executions in the USA this year, bringing to 1,592 the total number of there since 1976 when the US Supreme Court upheld new capital statutes. Alabama accounts for 75 of these executions, including three this year. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally in all cases.
