A man convicted of murdering a convenience store clerk during a 1997 robbery is set to be executed by nitrogen gas in Alabama this September.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has scheduled Geoffrey Todd West, 49, to be put to death on September 25.
West is on death row for the killing of Margaret Parrish Berry.
Prosecutors stated that West drove to Harold’s Chevron in Attalla, a store where he had previously worked, with the intention of robbing it.
Berry, 33, was shot in the back of the head while lying on the floor behind the counter.
Court records indicate that $250 was stolen from a cookie can containing the store’s money.
A jury found West guilty of capital murder, recommending a death sentence with a 10-2 vote. A judge subsequently upheld the recommendation, sentencing West to death.
During the 1999 sentencing, Etowah County Circuit Judge William Cardwell said that it was difficult to order the execution of a young man.
However, the shooting death was “clearly deliberate and intentional, carried out execution style,” the judge said.
Prosecutors also charged West’s girlfriend with the slaying. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
In 2024, Alabama became the first state to carry out an execution with nitrogen gas, a method that involves pumping nitrogen through a face mask and depriving the inmate of oxygen.
The method has now been used in six executions — five in Alabama and one in Louisiana. Alabama has scheduled another nitrogen execution in August.
Proponents claim it is an instant and painless death, while opponents claim it is untried and amounts to torture.
The method has sparked international backlash, including protests from the Vatican in 2024.
West was one of several Alabama inmates who selected nitrogen as their preferred execution method after state lawmakers authorized the method.
He made the selection before Alabama developed procedures for the method.
