1 of 2 | Geoffrey Todd West, 50, is to die by nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama on Thursday. Photo courtesy of Alabama Department of Corrections/Website
The United States has two executions scheduled for Thursday — one in Alabama and the other in Texas — during a year that has seen an uptick in inmates being put to death.
Geoffrey Todd West, 50, is to die by nitrogen hypoxia at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, located near the Alabama border along the Florida panhandle for the 1997 murder of 33-year-old Margaret Parrish Berry.
Nitrogen hypoxia is a method of execution that deprives the brain of oxygen by forcing inmates to breathe only nitrogen.
Only six people have been executed by this method since Alabama killed Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas in January of last year. Louisiana is the only other U.S. state that has actually used this method of execution.
The Texas Department of Corrections said in a statement that the tentative start time for West’s execution was 6 p.m. CDT, though Gov. Kay Ivey has set a 30-hour timeframe, opening at 12 a.m. CDT Thursday and closing 6 a.m. CDT Friday.
According to court documents, West is accused of killing Berry either during the late hours of March 27, 1997, or early March 28.
That night, West and his then-girlfriend drove to Harold’s Chevron gas station, where he previously worked in Etowah County. The court documents state he had told others he planned to rob the place and “leave no witnesses.”
Armed with a .45-caliber handgun, he entered the store and pointed the weapon at Berry as he took $250 from a cookie can he knew the store kept its money in. The court documents state he fatally shot Berry in the back of the head during the robbery.
Following his conviction, a jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty.
West is being executed despite appeals from Berry’s family.
In a recent op-ed published in the Alabama Reflector, Will Berry — who was 11 when his mother, Margaret Parrish Berry, was killed by West — said executing her murderer will not “bring my mother back; it will only add to the pain I have lived with since the night she was shot.”
“The criminal justice system is not built with victims’ needs, wishes and well-being in mind,” he wrote. “I know that as well as anybody, because what is being done in my name is not what I need or want.”
In Texas, the state is scheduled to kill 35-year-old Blaine Milam for the December 2008 assault and murder of his fiancee’s 13-month-old daughter, Amora Bain Carson.
According to court documents, Milam called 911 at 10:37 a.m. EDT Dec. 2, 2008, to report finding Carson died in their trailer.
He and his fiancee, Jessica Bain Carson, told police that they had left the child at home and came back to find her dead and covered with bruises. The autopsy found the child died from multiple blunt-force injuries and possible strangulation. She had facial abrasions, bruises and 24 human bite marks, among other injuries.
However, Jessica Bain Carson later admitted that over a period of 30 hours, they subjected Amora to torture in an attempt to “exorcise” a demon they claimed lived within the girl.
Jessica Bain Carson was convicted of capital murder for her role in the crime and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, according to court documents.
Milam was convicted of murder in May 2010 and was sentenced to death.
Milam and Jessica Bain Carson were both 18 at the time of the crime.
