Alabama carried out the execution of Geoffrey Todd West, 50, on September 25, 2025, by nitrogen hypoxia at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The state’s fourth execution of the year brought finality to the 1997 capital murder of 33-year-old gas station clerk Margaret Parrish Berry during a robbery in Etowah County.

West was pronounced ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at 6:22 p.m. after breathing pure nitrogen through a face mask, depriving his body of oxygen. The method, first used in Alabama in 2024, has now been employed in six state executions.

West’s final meal was chicken quesadillas. In the hours before his death, he received visits from eight people, including his mother, stepfather, father, brother, cousin, two attorneys, and a spiritual advisor. He made no phone calls on execution day.

Although given the opportunity to speak in the execution chamber, West declined. His attorney later released a prepared statement on his behalf:

“I am sorry. I have apologized privately to the family of Margaret Parrish Berry, and am humbled by the forgiveness her son, Will, has extended. I was baptized into the Catholic Church earlier this year and confirmed yesterday. I am at peace because I know where I am going and look forward to seeing Mrs. Berry when I get there. I urge everyone, especially young people, to find God. Spend a few moments to consider the two possibilities: this was all a fluke or there is a creator and a reason for everything.”

The statement stood in stark contrast to the cold brutality of the crime that defined West’s life.

On the evening of March 27, 1997, 21-year-old West and his girlfriend drove to Harold’s Chevron on Noccalula Parkway in Gadsden, where West had previously worked. Desperate for cash to support their drug habit, they planned a robbery. Berry, a single mother of two young sons, was working alone. Prosecutors proved West sH๏τ her execution-style in the back of the head while she lay on the floor behind the counter, ensuring she could not identify him. The pair stole approximately $250 from a cookie can used to hold store receipts.

Berry’s body was discovered the next morning. The crime shocked the тιԍнт-knit Etowah County community. West was arrested within days. At trial, a jury convicted him of capital murder during a robbery and recommended death by a 10-2 vote. The judge accepted the recommendation.

West spent 28 years on death row. Appeals were repeatedly denied. In the final weeks, he exchanged letters with Berry’s son Will, who offered forgiveness and publicly urged Gov. Kay Ivey to commute the sentence to life without parole. Will Berry, who was 11 when his mother was killed, told reporters that vengeance belongs to the Lord and that another death would not bring healing. A peтιтion signed by supporters was delivered to the governor’s office, but Ivey declined to intervene, stating Alabama law demands the death penalty for the most egregious murders.

Attorney General Steve Marshall cleared the execution to proceed at 6:00 p.m. In a statement after West’s death, Marshall emphasized that justice restores peace to communities devastated by such crimes.

The execution drew national attention as Alabama continues its aggressive pace of capital punishment in 2025. West’s case highlighted both the enduring pain of victims’ families and the rare instance of a victim’s son publicly seeking mercy for his mother’s killer.

As the nitrogen took effect, West appeared to turn pale and salivated at points, slowly shaking his head before becoming still. The clinical nature of the death stood in sharp relief to the human tragedy that began with a single gunsH๏τ in a quiet gas station 28 years earlier.

Geoffrey Todd West’s execution closes one of Alabama’s longest-running capital cases. Margaret Parrish Berry, who simply went to work one evening, never came home. Her sons grew up without their mother. West’s final meal and repentant statement offer a quiet coda to a life defined by one irreversible act of violence.

Justice has been served. The search for peace continues for those left behind.