Execution date set for man convicted of killing store clerk during 1997 robbery

This undated photo from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Geoffrey West. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)

The State of Alabama has scheduled the execution date for a man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk during a 1997 robbery.

Gov. Kay Ivey set a Sept. 25 execution date for Geoffrey Todd West. West is on the death row for killing Margaret Parrish Berry.

Prosecutors said West, who is now 49 years old, drove to Harold’s Chevron in the Etowah County city of Attalla with plans to rob the store where he once worked.

Berry, 33, was shot in the back of the head while lying on the floor behind the counter, prosecutors said.

Court records state that $250 was taken from a cookie can that held the store’s money.

A jury convicted West of capital murder and voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence. A judge accepted 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. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

West chose nitrogen as his preferred execution method after state lawmakers authorized it. Last year, Alabama became the first state to carry out an execution with nitrogen gas, which 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.

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