Alabama is preparing to execute a man convicted of killing a woman during a 1997 gas station robbery in what will be the nation’s latest execution carried out with nitrogen gas.
Geoffrey Todd West, 50, is scheduled to be executed Thursday night at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in south Alabama. West was convicted of capital murder for the 1997 shooting death of Margaret Parrish Berry, 33. Berry’s son is among those who urged Alabama’s governor to commute West’s sentence to life in prison.
It is one of two executions scheduled Thursday in the United States. Texas plans to carry out a lethal injection on the same evening.
The killing
Berry, the mother of two sons, was shot while lying on the floor behind the counter at Harold’s Chevron in Etowah County on March 28, 1997.
Prosecutors said the store clerk was killed to ensure there was no witness left behind. Court records state that $250 was taken from a cookie can that held the store’s money. West’s girlfriend agreed to testify against him in exchange for a 35-year sentence for her role in the robbery and slaying.
A jury convicted West of capital murder during a robbery and voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence — a recommendation accepted by the judge. Etowah County Circuit Judge William Cardwell said at the 1999 sentencing that he found it difficult to order the execution of a young man but said the killing was “intentional, carried out execution-style.”
“I’m so very sorry”
West doesn’t deny he killed Margaret Berry. He said at 50 that he struggles to understand what he did at 21. He and his girlfriend were desperate for cash and went to the store where he once worked to rob it.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t regret it and wish that I could take that back,” West told The Associated Press.
He said he wants to apologize to Berry’s family.
“I’m so very sorry for the hurt that I’ve caused you all. I’m so very sorry for what I’ve taken away from you, and I hope and pray you forgive me,” West said of what he wants to tell Berry’s family.
A plea from victim’s son
One of Berry’s sons urged Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to halt the execution and let West serve the rest of his life in prison.
Will Berry said he has forgiven West. He said that he believes forgiveness is what his mother would want.
“I don’t want this man to die. Vengeance isn’t for the state. It’s for the Lord,” Will Berry said.
Berry on Tuesday joined death penalty opponents at a vigil outside the Alabama Capitol. He helped delivered a petition to Ivey’s office asking that the execution be halted.
Ivey replied in a Sept. 11 letter to Berry that she appreciated his belief, but she said Alabama law “imposes death as punishment for the most egregious forms of murder.”
“As governor, it is my solemn duty to carry out these laws,” Ivey wrote.
Ivey has commuted one death sentence during her eight years in office. The Republican governor wrote in the letter that she did so only because of questions about the person’s guilt.
West and Will Berry exchanged letters. The two men had asked to be able to meet ahead of the Thursday night execution. But the state denied the request for security reasons.
Nitrogen gas
West will be executed by nitrogen gas. The method involves strapping a gas mask to the face and forcing the inmate to breathe pure nitrogen gas, thus depriving the person of the oxygen needed to stay alive. Nitrogen is an inert gas that makes up 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere and is harmless when mixed with adequate oxygen.
After Alabama lawmakers in 2018 authorized nitrogen gas as an execution method, the Alabama Department of Corrections gave death row prisoners a brief window to name their preferred execution method. West was one several dozen inmates in 2018 who picked nitrogen. However, at the time the state had not developed procedures for using it, and it was unclear when that would happen.
Alabama carried out the nation’s first nitrogen gas execution in 2024. Nationally, six people have now been executed using nitrogen gas — five in Alabama and one in Louisiana.
Lethal injection remains Alabama’s primary execution method.
