Alabama death row inmate pleads with state to not autopsy his body after execution, citing his Muslim faith
Keith Gavin, who is set to be executed next Thursday or Friday, says his body will be subjected to an “invasive autopsy” that would violate his “sincerely held religious beliefs,” as well as Alabama state law, according to the complaint filed by his attorneys last month.
Among those named as defendants in the lawsuit are Escambia County District Attorney Steve Billy, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm and Terry Raybon, warden of the William C. Holman Correctional Facility where Gavin is incarcerated on death row.
The complaint is seeking a judicial order preventing the defendants from performing the autopsy and requiring them “to respect Mr. Gavin’s constitutional rights and sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Gavin is a devout Muslim, the complaint says, and his religion “teaches that the human body is a sacred temple, which must be kept whole.” An autopsy, he says, would desecrate his body and “violate the sanctity of keeping his human body intact” along with his right to the free exercise of his religion.
The lawsuit claims Gavin’s attorneys have repeatedly attempted to reach state officials in charge of the autopsy process regarding his request for his “earthly remains to be handled consistent with his faith,” but have received no response.
Immediately after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed Gavin’s April 25 letter setting his execution date, the lawsuit says the defendants failed to respond to phone calls, emails and in-person visits or have declined to speak with Gavin’s attorneys.
Under Alabama law, a medical examiner is required to investigate any death that takes place in any penal institution in the state, and the law gives discretion to state officials to order a postmortem autopsy if the death is “unlawful, suspicious or unnatural.”
“This law is intended to establish with certainty the cause of death in any such event. After Mr. Gavin’s execution, there will be no question as to who or what caused Mr. Gavin’s death. The State will execute him by lethal injection,” the lawsuit argues.
CNN has reached out to the Alabama Department of Corrections and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office for comment on the lawsuit.
Alabama has faced scrutiny over its executions after multiple failed lethal injections prompted an internal review of the state’s capital punishment system in 2022.
Ivey asked the state Department of Corrections to conduct a “top-to-bottom review of the state’s execution process” after the problems came into the national spotlight, CNN previously reported. The state resumed executions last spring after the review was completed.
The state officials, including Commissioner John Hamm and Warden Terry Raybon, are named as defendants in Gavin's lawsuit due to their role in the execution and potential autopsy. Despite repeated requests from Gavin's attorneys, they have failed to respond to their concerns about honouring Gavin's religious beliefs during the post-execution process.
