MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama has scheduled a September execution by nitrogen gasoline for a person convicted of killing a comfort retailer clerk throughout a 1997 theft.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey set a Sept. 25 execution date for Geoffrey Todd West. West, now 49, is on the loss of life row for killing Margaret Parrish Berry.
Prosecutors stated West drove to Harold’s Chevron in Attalla with plans to rob the shop the place he as soon as labored. Berry, 33, was shot behind the pinnacle whereas mendacity on the ground behind the counter, prosecutors stated.
Court docket information state that $250 was taken from a cookie can that held the shop’s cash.
A jury convicted West of capital homicide and voted 10-2 to suggest a loss of life sentence. A choose adopted the jury’s advice and sentenced West to loss of life.
Etowah County Circuit Decide William Cardwell in the course of the 1999 sentencing stated it was troublesome to order the execution of a younger man however stated the capturing loss of life was “clearly deliberate and intentional, carried out execution fashion.”
Prosecutors additionally charged West’s girlfriend with the slaying. She pleaded responsible and was sentenced to 35 years in jail.
Alabama final 12 months turned the first state to hold out an execution with nitrogen gasoline, a technique that entails pumping nitrogen by a face masks and depriving the inmate of oxygen.
The tactic has now been utilized in six executions — five in Alabama and one in Louisiana. Alabama has scheduled another nitrogen execution in August.
West was certainly one of a number of Alabama inmates who chosen nitrogen as their most well-liked execution methodology after state lawmakers approved the strategy. He made the choice earlier than Alabama developed procedures for the strategy.
