CNN is reporting that the State of Alabama is agreeing to a request from Muslim death row inmate that his body not be autopsied following his planned execution next week. This follows action by the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization. The Council on American-Islamic Relations says religious freedom in the U.S. doesn’t end when someone is being bars. Gavin’s request was based on his Muslim faith. The group, also known as CAIR for short, supported the wishes of the Alabama Death Row inmate.
Gavin was convicted of capital murder for the 1998 shooting death of William Clinton Clayton Jr. in Cherokee County in northeast Alabama. Clayton, a delivery driver, was shot when he stopped at an ATM to get money to take his wife to dinner, prosecutors said. 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.
This isn’t the first time the practice of conducting autopsies on Alabama prison inmates has generated controversy. Back in May, the University of Alabama at Birmingham terminated a contract with the State Department of Corrections to conduct postmortem examinations of Alabama inmates. AL.com reported the families of five State prisoners sued the school and DOC for allegedly stealing internal organs that were supposedly missing when the remains were returned. UAB and its Department of Pathology did not comment beyond this public statement to the media, including AL.com, when the story broke.
“While the UAB Department of Pathology has been in compliance with laws governing autopsies to determine the cause of death of incarcerated individuals under the appropriate clinical standard – and a panel of medical ethicists reviewed and endorsed our protocols regarding autopsies conducted for incarcerated persons – we have terminated our contract with the Alabama Department of Corrections and no longer perform autopsies for ADOC. UAB has one of the highest ranked pathology programs in the country, is accredited by the College of American Pathologists and is staffed by credentialed physicians who are certified by the American Board of Pathology.”
