Execution date set for Alabama man convicted of deadly gas station shooting

Updated: 7:05 PM CDT Jul 3, 2025

Riley Conlon

Digital Producer

An Alabama man who has spent nearly three decades on death row will soon be executed for the 1997 murder of a gas station attendant.On Thursday, Gov. Kay Ivey announced that Geoffrey Todd West will die by nitrogen hypoxia sometime between midnight on Thursday, September 25, and 6 a.m. on Friday, September 26.On March 28, 1997, West and his girlfriend drove to Harold’s Chevron in Attalla, where he used to work, according to court documents.West reportedly told others that he planned to rob the store and “leave no witnesses,” “kill the person up there.”Armed with a .45 caliber handgun, West entered the store, stole $250 from a can where the store kept money, and then shot the store's attendant, Margaret Parrish Berry, in the back of the head. A jury convicted West of capital murder and voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence. A judge adopted the jury’s recommendation and sentenced West to death.Etowah County Circuit Judge William Cardwell during the 1999 sentencing said it was difficult to order the execution of a young man but said the shooting death was “clearly deliberate and intentional, carried out execution style.”Prosecutors also charged West’s girlfriend with the slaying. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.West's execution method, the inhalation of nitrogen gas, was first utilized by Alabama last year during the execution of Kenneth Smith. It has been the subject of major controversy from activists who say the state is effectively experimenting on its inmates.The state will execute death row inmate David Lee Roberts using the same method just a month before West is set to die.The Associated Press contributed to this report

ATTALLA, Ala. —

An Alabama man who has spent nearly three decades on death row will soon be executed for the 1997 murder of a gas station attendant.

On Thursday, Gov. Kay Ivey announced that Geoffrey Todd West will die by nitrogen hypoxia sometime between midnight on Thursday, September 25, and 6 a.m. on Friday, September 26.

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On March 28, 1997, West and his girlfriend drove to Harold’s Chevron in Attalla, where he used to work, according to court documents.

West reportedly told others that he planned to rob the store and “leave no witnesses,” “kill the person up there.”

Armed with a .45 caliber handgun, West entered the store, stole $250 from a can where the store kept money, and then shot the store's attendant, Margaret Parrish Berry, in the back of the head.

A jury convicted West of capital murder and voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence. A judge adopted the jury’s recommendation and sentenced West to death.

Etowah County Circuit Judge William Cardwell during the 1999 sentencing said it was difficult to order the execution of a young man but said the shooting death was “clearly deliberate and intentional, carried out execution style.”

Prosecutors also charged West’s girlfriend with the slaying. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

West's execution method, the inhalation of nitrogen gas, was first utilized by Alabama last year during the execution of Kenneth Smith. It has been the subject of major controversy from activists who say the state is effectively experimenting on its inmates.

The state will execute death row inmate David Lee Roberts using the same method just a month before West is set to die.

The Associated Press contributed to this report