7.0 The Execution of Geoffrey Todd West: Forgiveness, "The Least Movement" and the Seventh Nitrogen Death

7.0: The Execution of Geoffrey Todd West: Forgiveness, "The Least Movement" and the Seventh Nitrogen Death

I. September 2025 and the Accelerating Pace

By September 2025, nitrogen hypoxia executions had become routine enough to be scheduled with confidence and carried out with efficiency. Alabama had already executed three people that year: Demetrius Frazier in February, James Osgood in April and Gregory Hunt in June. Louisiana had executed Jessie Hoffman in March. The legal framework was settled, the observable patterns were familiar and the political will to continue remained unshaken.¹ Six people had died by nitrogen gas. The seventh would follow before the month ended.

The execution of Geoffrey Todd West on September 25, 2025, marked several developments in nitrogen hypoxia's evolution. Most significantly, Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm would characterize West's execution as showing "the least movement that we've seen" among all nitrogen executions, claiming that West's physical reactions were less pronounced than those of Smith, Miller, Grayson, Frazier, Hunt or Hoffman.² This assertion, that the protocol was improving and that the observable distress was diminishing, suggested either that Alabama had refined its nitrogen protocol or that the state's tolerance for characterizing suffering as "involuntary" had expanded to encompass even subtle signs of distress.³

But West's case carried dimensions that extended far beyond the technical details of execution methods. His crime, the 1997 murder of Margaret Parrish Berry during a gas station robbery, had left profound trauma that rippled through the victim's family for 28 years.⁴ Yet one of Berry's sons, Will Berry, had publicly forgiven West and pleaded with Governor Kay Ivey to spare his life.⁵ Berry's advocacy---joining death penalty opponents at the Alabama Capitol, delivering a petition and exchanging letters with the man who killed his mother---represented a moral complexity that the state's narrative of simple retribution could not accommodate.⁶

This chapter examines West's path to the execution chamber through the reporting of Kim Chandler, the Associated Press journalist who documented both the lead-up to the execution and its aftermath. Where earlier chapters established nitrogen hypoxia's legal standing and interstate spread, this chapter reveals how the method operates when a victim's family member opposes the execution, when the condemned expresses genuine remorse and when the state proceeds regardless because, as Attorney General Steve Marshall's office stated, West's "sentence is due."⁷

II. The Crime: Margaret Parrish Berry and March 1997

Margaret Parrish Berry was 33 years old in March 1997, a mother of two sons---Will, then 11, and his older brother---who worked at Harold's Chevron in Attalla, Etowah County.⁸ The convenience store job helped support her family. It was honest work, the kind that keeps communities functioning but rarely makes headlines.⁹ On March 28, 1997, Margaret Berry went to work believing she would return home that evening. She would never get that chance.¹⁰

Geoffrey Todd West was 21 years old, a former employee at Harold's Chevron who knew the store's layout and routines.¹¹ Prosecutors would later establish that West had expressed his intention to rob the store and to "leave no witnesses."¹² On that March evening, West drove to the Chevron with his girlfriend, Amy Pearce, armed with a .45 caliber handgun.¹³ He entered the store, held Margaret Berry at gunpoint and demanded money.¹⁴

Berry complied. Court records indicate that $250 was taken from a cookie can where the store kept cash.¹⁵ Berry gave West the money. But West did not leave. Instead, he forced Berry to lie face down on the floor behind the counter and shot her in the back of the head.¹⁶ The shot was fatal. Margaret Berry died at work, killed for $250 and eliminated as a witness to a robbery.¹⁷

West fled the scene with Amy Pearce, who would later be charged as an accomplice and would plead guilty, receiving a 35-year prison sentence.¹⁸ West was arrested, tried and convicted of capital murder in 1999.¹⁹ The jury voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, and Etowah County Circuit Judge William Cardwell accepted that recommendation.²⁰ West joined Alabama's death row, where he would spend the next 26 years.²¹

The crime's brutality was undeniable. Attorney General Marshall's office would later emphasize that Berry "gave West the cash on hand, and he executed her," framing the killing as particularly cold-blooded because it occurred after Berry had cooperated fully.²² Yet the crime was also tragically ordinary: a young man desperate for money making catastrophically poor decisions, destroying lives for a sum that would be spent within days.²³

III. 26 Years on Death Row and the Question of Remorse

Geoffrey Todd West spent 26 years on Alabama's death row, nearly the entire lifespan Margaret Berry had accumulated when she was killed.²⁴ During those years, West underwent what he described as profound reflection and transformation. In interviews with Kim Chandler before his execution, West expressed remorse that appeared genuine and deep.²⁵

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret it and wish that I could take that back," West told Chandler.²⁶ He wanted to apologize directly to Berry's family: "I'm so very sorry for the hurt that I've caused you all. I'm so very sorry for what I've taken away from you, and I hope and pray you forgive me."²⁷

West also offered advice to young people in desperate situations, speaking from the perspective of someone who had made the worst choice imaginable at age 21: "If you don't have nowhere else to go, go to church, find a priest, and just tell them everything. But just don't do what I did, man. You've got an option, even if you don't feel like you've got an option."²⁸

Whether this remorse was sufficient, whether it mattered legally, whether it changed anything about what West had done---these questions would dominate the debate about his execution.²⁹ The state's position, articulated by Attorney General Marshall's office, was clear: West "has been on death row for twenty-six years, and his sentence is due."³⁰ The passage of time, the expression of remorse, the potential for redemption---none of this altered the fundamental calculus. West had been sentenced to death in 1999 for his 1997 crime. That sentence would be carried out in 2025 regardless of who West had become during his incarceration.³¹

IV. Will Berry: Forgiveness and the Victim's Son Who Opposed Execution

The most remarkable dimension of West's case was the public advocacy of Will Berry, who was 11 years old when his mother was murdered and who became a father and grandfather in the years that followed.³² Berry's journey from traumatized child to death penalty opponent illustrates how victims' families' perspectives can evolve over decades---and how those perspectives are often ignored when they don't align with the state's determination to carry out executions.³³

Berry told Chandler that prosecutors had urged his family to support a death sentence after his mother's murder.³⁴ As an 11-year-old processing unimaginable grief, Berry likely had little capacity to form independent views about capital punishment.³⁵ But as he matured, married, had children and became a grandfather, his perspective shifted. Berry remarked, "Time and faith have given him a different perspective."³⁶

Berry's opposition to West's execution was rooted in both forgiveness and pragmatism. "I forgive this guy, and I don't want him to die," Berry said in a telephone interview with Chandler. "I don't want the state to take revenge in my name or my family's name for my mother."³⁷ He believed forgiveness was what his mother would have wanted.³⁸ And he recognized that West's execution would not restore his mother to life or heal 28 years of grief.³⁹

Berry took his advocacy public. On Tuesday, September 23, 2025, two days before West's scheduled execution, Berry joined death penalty opponents at a vigil outside the Alabama Capitol.⁴⁰ Photographs captured Berry ringing a bell to symbolize opposition to the death penalty and speaking to the small crowd gathered.⁴¹ Berry helped deliver a petition to Governor Ivey's office asking that the execution be halted.⁴²

Berry and West had exchanged letters in the weeks before the execution.⁴³ West expressed remorse. Berry offered forgiveness. The two men requested permission to meet face to face before the execution.⁴⁴ Prison officials denied the request, citing security reasons.⁴⁵ This denial raises questions: How did West pose such a security threat that he could not meet with a willing victim family member in a highly controlled prison setting? Or was the denial less about security and more about preventing a humanizing encounter that might complicate the state's narrative of simple retribution?⁴⁶

Berry sent a letter directly to Governor Ivey, writing that West's death would "weigh heavily on me, and it would not bring my mother back."⁴⁷ Ivey replied on September 11, 2025, acknowledging Berry's belief but maintaining that Alabama law "imposes a death sentence for the most egregious form of murder" and that it was her duty as governor to carry out the law.⁴⁸

The exchange between Berry and Ivey crystallized the tension at the heart of capital punishment debates. Berry represented mercy, forgiveness and the recognition that killing West would not undo his mother's death. Ivey represented law, duty and the state's determination to carry out sentences regardless of whether doing so serves victims' families' interests.⁴⁹ Berry's opposition was dismissed not because his arguments were unpersuasive, but because the machinery of death, once set in motion, does not stop for moral complexities of individual cases.⁵⁰

V. The Legal Landscape: "The Sentence Is Due"

Attorney General Steve Marshall's office provided a statement that framed West's execution in stark terms, "Geoffrey Todd West has been on death row for twenty-six years, and his sentence is due."⁵¹ This language---"due"---suggested an obligation, a debt owed, a temporal deadline that had arrived. The 26 years on death row were not presented as evidence that the sentence might be reconsidered based on rehabilitation, but as proof that it was past time for the execution to occur.⁵²

The statement also emphasized the brutality of the crime: "She gave West the cash on hand, and he executed her."⁵³ This characterization highlighted that Margaret Berry had complied with West's demands, making her killing particularly senseless and cruel.⁵⁴ The Attorney General's office used this framing---that West had not acted in passion or panic, but had deliberately killed a cooperative victim to eliminate a witness---to counter arguments for clemency.⁵⁵

Yet West's legal challenges in his final weeks were minimal compared to those mounted by earlier nitrogen hypoxia inmates. West had elected nitrogen as his preferred execution method in 2018 when Alabama first offered the choice, before any protocol had been developed.⁵⁶ Unlike Miller, whose election was disputed, or Frazier, whose case raised interstate custody issues, West's nitrogen election was clear and undisputed.⁵⁷ This eliminated one potential avenue of challenge.⁵⁸

The constitutional arguments about nitrogen hypoxia's cruelty had also been largely exhausted by previous cases. Smith, Miller, Grayson, Frazier, Hunt and Hoffman had all raised Eighth Amendment challenges and courts had consistently rejected them.⁵⁹ By September 2025, the legal framework was settled. Nitrogen hypoxia was constitutionally permissible, observable physical reactions did not establish substantial risk of severe pain and the state's assertions about the protocol's humanity would be accepted absent definitive proof to the contrary.⁶⁰

West's case proceeded to execution with minimal legal drama. No stays were granted. No federal courts intervened. The execution date, set for a 30-hour window beginning at 12:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 25, and ending at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, September 26, moved forward as scheduled.⁶¹

VI. The Execution: September 25, 2025

A. Final Hours and Visits

In the hours before his execution, West received eight visitors: his attorneys, his parents and other relatives.⁶² This was more family presence than Gregory Hunt had experienced (Hunt had no visitors except attorneys), suggesting that West maintained relationships despite 26 years of incarceration.⁶³ His final meal consisted of chicken quesadillas, a modest request that spoke to simple tastes rather than elaborate last indulgences.⁶⁴

The execution was one of two scheduled in the United States that evening. Texas planned to carry out a lethal injection of Blaine Milam for killing his girlfriend's 13-month-old daughter.⁶⁵ This simultaneous scheduling---two states executing two people on the same night---reflected what death penalty opponents called a national "spike" in executions, reaching the highest total since 2014.⁶⁶ Florida had set a new state record with 12 executions in 2025, and Alabama was on pace to match or exceed its own 2024 total.⁶⁷

B. The Execution Protocol and Observable Reactions

At approximately 5:56 p.m., the execution began.⁶⁸ When Warden Terry Raybon asked if West had final words, West replied, "No sir."⁶⁹ Strapped to the gurney with a blue rimmed gas mask covering his face, West gave a thumbs up in the direction of his attorney as the execution commenced.⁷⁰ This gesture---a final non-verbal communication with someone who had fought for his life---captured West's awareness that he was about to die and his attempt to maintain human connection in his final moments.⁷¹

Chandler's reporting provided critical details about what followed: "West's eyes were open as he appeared to gulp and struggle for breath during the first two minutes."⁷² This observation---eyes open, gulping and struggling for breath---suggested conscious awareness during the initial phase of nitrogen administration. West was not unconscious within seconds as the protocol promised. He was visibly responding to the sensation of oxygen deprivation.⁷³

Other witness accounts corroborated Chandler's observations. West exhibited physical movements during the execution, though the precise nature and duration of these movements became a point of dispute.⁷⁴ What is undisputed is that West was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., approximately 26 minutes after the execution began.⁷⁵ This duration was consistent with previous nitrogen executions, all of which had taken 20-30 minutes from start to death pronouncement.⁷⁶

C. Commissioner Hamm: "The Least Movement We've Seen"

In the press conference following the execution, Commissioner John Q. Hamm made a remarkable claim that distinguished West's execution from the previous six nitrogen deaths. Asked about West's movements during the execution, Hamm stated, "It's been previously stated that there's always involuntary movement and everybody is different, because we have seen a variation in movement in the six we've done, but West was the least movement we've seen."⁷⁷

This characterization---"the least movement"---suggested that West's execution had proceeded more smoothly than Smith's, Miller's, Grayson's, Frazier's, Hunt's or Hoffman's.⁷⁸ Yet the assertion raised immediate questions. Chandler had observed West's eyes open, gulping and struggling for breath during the first two minutes.⁷⁹ How could these reactions constitute "the least movement" unless the prior executions had involved even more pronounced distress?⁸⁰

When asked about whether West's skin had appeared to turn blue during the execution, Hamm responded, "People that die, they start changing colors, but I didn't notice the skin on his arms."⁸¹ This response acknowledged that cyanosis, skin discoloration due to lack of oxygen, occurs during nitrogen-induced death, but Hamm claimed not to have observed it in West's case.⁸² The qualifier "from where Hamm sits" suggested that the Commissioner's viewing angle was limited, raising questions about how he could confidently characterize the execution as showing "the least movement" when his view was partial.⁸³

Hamm also addressed questions about salivation or foaming at the mouth, stating, "I didn't see any salivation or foaming at the mouth" because from his position he could see "very little of his face."⁸⁴ Again, this admission of limited visibility complicated Hamm's confident assertions about what West experienced.⁸⁵

When pressed to clarify how Alabama knows the movements during nitrogen executions are "involuntary," Hamm offered a revealing response: "It's just my opinion, just like [the media has] an opinion of what you see."⁸⁶ This framing---characterizing the state's assessment of suffering as merely "opinion"---inadvertently conceded that Alabama's claims about nitrogen hypoxia's humanity rest on interpretation rather than objective medical evidence.⁸⁷ Hamm was not reporting EEG readings, blood oxygen levels or neurological monitoring. He was offering his opinion based on partial observation, and he acknowledged that others observing the same execution might reach different conclusions.⁸⁸

Hamm also addressed concerns about procedural changes: "He said the execution had gone as expected" and denied making changes to the protocol.⁸⁹ Yet the assertion that West's execution showed "the least movement" suggested either that individual physiological variation explained the difference or that Alabama had made undisclosed modifications to the protocol.⁹⁰ The state's secrecy about protocol details made it impossible to verify whether changes had occurred.⁹¹

D. The Five-Minute Post-Flatline Gas Flow

One detail from West's execution that emerged in Hamm's statement was particularly significant: "The gas flowed for five minutes past flatline."⁹² This meant that after West's heart stopped beating---after the electrocardiogram showed no cardiac activity---nitrogen continued flowing for an additional five minutes.⁹³ The purpose of this extended gas flow was presumably to ensure death, preventing any possibility of resuscitation or survival in a vegetative state.⁹⁴

But this detail also raised a question: If nitrogen hypoxia causes rapid unconsciousness and death within minutes as proponents claim, why does the protocol require continuing gas flow for five minutes after the heart stops?⁹⁵ The answer suggests that Alabama recognizes uncertainty about when death actually occurs and builds in a safety margin to ensure the condemned person cannot recover.⁹⁶ Yet this same caution about ensuring death contradicts the state's confident assertions that nitrogen causes rapid reliable unconsciousness.⁹⁷

VII. Official Statements and Competing Narratives

A. Governor Ivey: Duty and Law

Governor Kay Ivey's statement following the execution emphasized the state's perspective: "Almost 30 years ago, Margaret Parrish Berry went to work at the convenience store, but she would never get to return home. Geoffrey West went in with the intent to rob and kill, and he cowardly shot Ms. Berry in the back of the head. Alabama law imposes death as punishment for the most egregious forms of murder, and there was no question of Mr. West's guilt by the jury in this case or any court over the last three decades."⁹⁸

Ivey's statement did not mention Will Berry's opposition to the execution or his plea for clemency.⁹⁹ It framed the execution as fulfilling a legal obligation rather than responding to victim family preferences.¹⁰⁰ The phrase "it is my solemn duty as governor to carry out these laws" positioned Ivey as an executor of legislative will rather than someone exercising independent judgment about whether clemency was appropriate.¹⁰¹

Notably, Ivey has commuted only one death sentence during her eight years as governor---and only because of questions about the person's guilt.¹⁰² This narrow standard for clemency suggests that Ivey views her role as ministerial. If guilt is clear and the sentence was lawfully imposed, the execution proceeds regardless of other considerations.¹⁰³

B. Attorney General Marshall: Delayed Justice and Legal Gamesmanship

Attorney General Steve Marshall's statement struck a more combative tone, characterizing West's final legal efforts as "legal gamesmanship" that had delayed justice for 26 years.¹⁰⁴ "While working an honest job at a convenience store, Margaret Berry was executed in cold blood for $250. There is no doubt or dispute over the facts of this case, but thanks to legal gamesmanship, justice has been delayed for 26 years."¹⁰⁵

Marshall's framing presented the 26 years between conviction and execution as an unwarranted delay caused by frivolous appeals rather than as the ordinary functioning of a capital punishment system that provides multiple layers of review.¹⁰⁶ The characterization of legal appeals as "gamesmanship" dismissed the constitutional questions, evidentiary disputes and procedural safeguards that death penalty litigation involves.¹⁰⁷

Marshall also emphasized retribution and moral clarity: "As a country, we must stand firmly in our beliefs between right and wrong, justice and forgiveness. Alabama is steadfast in our commitment to holding the guilty accountable because that is what honors the dignity of every victim."¹⁰⁸ This formulation positioned forgiveness---Will Berry's forgiveness, the forgiveness Berry believed his mother would have wanted---as opposed to justice and accountability.¹⁰⁹ Yet this binary ignores Berry's actual argument, that holding West accountable through life imprisonment rather than execution would honor his mother's memory without requiring the state to kill in her name.¹¹⁰

C. National Advocacy: The "Spike" in Executions

Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, condemned both West's and Milam's executions as part of a troubling national trend: "The truth is that none of these executions are necessary to keep us safe or hold accountable those who have committed terrible crimes. We know this because the vast majority of murder cases do not end with an execution."¹¹¹

Bonowitz's statement highlighted that executions are not inevitable responses to murder but discretionary choices made by prosecutors, juries and political leaders.¹¹² Most murders do not result in death sentences, and most death sentences are never carried out.¹¹³ The execution of Geoffrey Todd West, like all executions, represented a series of decisions by multiple actors over decades to pursue death rather than life imprisonment.¹¹⁴

VIII. Analysis and Implications

A. "The Least Movement" and the Normalization of Suffering

Commissioner Hamm's characterization of West's execution as showing "the least movement" reveals how thoroughly Alabama has normalized nitrogen hypoxia despite observable suffering in every case.¹¹⁵ If West's execution---which involved eyes open, gulping, struggling for breath during the first two minutes and a 26-minute duration---represents the best-case scenario, then the method's track record is one of consistent visible distress.¹¹⁶

The assertion that West's movements were less pronounced than previous executions cannot be independently verified due to Alabama's refusal to release detailed observational data or to permit independent medical monitoring.¹¹⁷ We must rely on Hamm's "opinion" and on partial witness accounts from media observers with limited viewing angles.¹¹⁸ This lack of transparency allows the state to claim success regardless of what actually occurs.¹¹⁹

Moreover, Hamm's acknowledgment that his assessment is merely "opinion" rather than medical fact inadvertently concedes that Alabama's claims about nitrogen hypoxia's humanity rest on subjective interpretation.¹²⁰ When the state's primary defender of the protocol admits he's offering opinion based on partial observation, the foundation for confident assertions about painless death crumbles.¹²¹

B. Forgiveness Denied: When Victim Families Don't Matter

Will Berry's public campaign to spare West's life---his letters to Ivey, his participation in the Capitol vigil, his statements to the press---demonstrated that victim families are not monolithic in supporting executions.¹²² Yet Berry's opposition was dismissed by state officials who claimed to be executing West in the name of justice for Margaret Berry and her family.¹²³

This dynamic---ignoring victim family members whose views don't align with the decision to execute---exposes the limits of the "justice for victims" rhetoric that surrounds capital punishment.¹²⁴ Berry explicitly stated that he did not want West to die and that he did not want the state to take revenge in his name.¹²⁵ His wishes were disregarded not because they were unpersuasive, but because the state's interest in carrying out the death sentence superseded the victim's son's expressed preferences.¹²⁶

Governor Ivey's response to Berry acknowledged his belief but emphasized her duty to carry out Alabama law.¹²⁷ This response treated Berry's opposition as a personal sentiment rather than a factor deserving serious consideration in clemency deliberations.¹²⁸ The implication is that victim families matter only when they support executions. When they oppose them, their views become irrelevant to the state's calculus.¹²⁹

C. 26 Years and the Question of Timely Justice

Attorney General Marshall's statement that West's "sentence is due" after 26 years framed the delay as problematic, evidence that justice had been too long denied.¹³⁰ Yet the same 26-year delay raises uncomfortable questions about the death penalty's administration.¹³¹

West was 21 when he committed the crime, 23 when sentenced and 50 when executed.¹³² He spent more than half his life on death row.¹³³ Is executing someone nearly three decades after their crime serves retribution, deterrence or any other penological goal?¹³⁴ Or has the delay itself become a form of additional punishment beyond what the sentence contemplated?¹³⁵

Will Berry's evolution from an 11 year old traumatized by his mother's murder to a father and grandfather who forgives his mother's killer illustrates how people change over decades.¹³⁶ Both Berry and West transformed during the 26 years between crime and execution.¹³⁷ The person executed in 2025 was not the same person who killed Margaret Berry in 1997, and the person advocating for mercy in 2025 was not the same child who watched his mother's killer convicted in 1999.¹³⁸ Yet the legal system treats both as fixed: West as forever defined by his worst act, Berry as irrelevant once his opposition diverges from the state's preferred narrative.¹³⁹

D. The "Variation in Movement" Admission

Hamm's statement that "we have seen a variation in movement in the six we've done" is significant because it acknowledges inconsistency in how nitrogen hypoxia manifests.¹⁴⁰ If the method produces predictable rapid unconsciousness, why would there be substantial variation between executions?¹⁴¹

The most likely explanations are (1) individual physiological differences affect how quickly and completely nitrogen displaces oxygen, (2) variations in mask fit or gas flow affect the protocol's effectiveness or (3) some condemned prisoners experience more conscious suffering than others before losing consciousness.¹⁴² All three possibilities undermine the state's confident assertions about nitrogen hypoxia's reliability and humanity.¹⁴³

If individual variation means some people suffer more than others during nitrogen executions, then the method fails to provide the consistency that execution protocols are supposed to ensure.¹⁴⁴ And if mask fit or protocol execution affects outcomes, then Alabama's refusal to disclose technical details prevents external evaluation of whether the protocol can be improved.¹⁴⁵

E. The Thumbs-Up and Human Connection

West's thumbs-up gesture toward his attorney as the execution began captured a moment of human connection in the machinery of state killing.¹⁴⁶ Unlike Carey Grayson's raised middle fingers (defiance) or Gregory Hunt's resignation ("no pity party"), West's gesture suggested gratitude, acknowledgment or perhaps simply a final communication with someone who had fought for his life.¹⁴⁷

The gesture also confirmed that West was conscious and aware as the execution began---conscious enough to recognize his attorney's location, intentional enough to make a deliberate hand gesture and aware enough to know he was saying goodbye.¹⁴⁸ This conscious awareness during the execution's initiation contradicts claims that nitrogen causes instantaneous unconsciousness.¹⁴⁹

IX. Conclusion: The Seventh Death and the Trajectory Forward

Geoffrey Todd West died on September 25, 2025, at 6:22 p.m., approximately 26 minutes after the execution began.¹⁵⁰ He was the seventh person executed by nitrogen hypoxia---the sixth in Alabama, following Smith, Miller, Grayson, Frazier and Hunt.¹⁵¹ His execution came despite his expressions of remorse, despite Will Berry's public advocacy for clemency and despite ongoing questions about whether nitrogen hypoxia causes unnecessary suffering.¹⁵²

Commissioner Hamm's characterization of West's execution as showing "the least movement" suggested either that Alabama's protocol was improving or that the standard for what constitutes acceptable suffering had shifted to encompass even more visible distress than earlier executions.¹⁵³ The claim cannot be independently verified due to Alabama's secrecy about protocol details and refusal to permit independent medical monitoring.¹⁵⁴

West's case revealed the limits of victim family preferences when those preferences diverge from the state's determination to execute. Will Berry's forgiveness, his opposition to the execution and his plea for clemency were acknowledged but ultimately dismissed as irrelevant to Governor Ivey's "solemn duty" to carry out the law.¹⁵⁵ The rhetoric of executing in victims' names proved hollow when the victim's son explicitly stated he did not want West to die.¹⁵⁶

The execution also demonstrated nitrogen hypoxia's complete normalization within Alabama's capital punishment system. West's execution was scheduled, carried out and defended using the same framework that had governed the six previous nitrogen deaths.¹⁵⁷ No new legal arguments emerged. No stays were granted. The execution proceeded with the efficiency that comes from repetition and the confidence that comes from knowing courts will not intervene.¹⁵⁸

By September 2025, Alabama had executed four people that year---Frazier, Osgood, Hunt and West---putting the state "on pace" to match or exceed its 2024 total of six executions, more than any other state that year.¹⁵⁹ This accelerated pace reflected nitrogen hypoxia's role in overcoming the practical obstacles that had previously slowed Alabama's executions.¹⁶⁰ The method provided a reliable alternative to lethal injection, immune from pharmaceutical boycotts and largely insulated from legal challenge.¹⁶¹

Nationally, executions had reached their highest total since 2014, with Florida setting a new state record of 12 executions in 2025.¹⁶² Experts attributed the spike to multiple factors: the Supreme Court taking a less active role in intervening in death penalty cases, political support for capital punishment from federal leadership and the adoption of alternative execution methods like nitrogen hypoxia.¹⁶³ West's execution contributed to this national trend, demonstrating that states facing execution challenges can resume regular operations by adopting new methods.¹⁶⁴

Where Chapter 1 introduced nitrogen hypoxia as an untested method, Chapters 2-6 documented its normalization despite observable suffering and this chapter reveals the method operating with such routine efficiency that the state can claim the "least movement" even when witnesses observe gulping, struggling for breath and 26 minutes from start to death.¹⁶⁵ Seven nitrogen executions have now established that the method produces consistent visible distress---yet that consistency has not prompted reconsideration, but has instead been absorbed into the narrative of expected, involuntary and acceptable responses.¹⁶⁶

Geoffrey Todd West's final gesture---a thumbs-up toward his attorney---captured human connection in a system designed to eliminate it. His expressions of remorse, documented by Kim Chandler's reporting, suggested genuine transformation over 26 years. Will Berry's forgiveness demonstrated that victim families can choose mercy over vengeance. Yet none of this mattered when the state decided West's "sentence was due."¹⁶⁷

The machinery continued. Alabama's pace of executions was accelerating. And the seventh death, like the six before it, simply became another data point in the empirical record of what happens when states smother people to death and call it the "least movement" they've seen.¹⁶⁸

Endnotes

Alabama Department of Corrections, Execution Records 2024--2025; Death Penalty Information Center, "Execution Database," https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/data/executions. By Sept. 2025, Alabama had executed Demetrius Frazier (Feb. 6, nitrogen), James Osgood (Apr. 24, lethal injection), and Gregory Hunt (June 10, nitrogen). Louisiana executed Jessie Hoffman Jr. (Mar. 18, nitrogen).
John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, Press Conference, William C. Holman Correctional Facility (Sept. 25, 2025), quoted in Sarah Clifton, "Alabama Executes Geoffrey Todd West by Nitrogen Gas for 1997 Murder," Montgomery Advertiser, Sept. 25, 2025, https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/alabama/2025/09/25/geoffrey-todd-west-executed-for-1997-murder/86178167007; Kim Chandler, "Alabama Executes Man with Nitrogen Gas for 1997 Shooting Death of Store Clerk," Associated Press, Sept. 25, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/alabama-execution-nitrogen-abbee4a788ad61f5b8d7cfe0d7afe992.
Analysis of "least movement" claim and its implications for protocol assessment.
West v. State, 793 So.2d 870, 873 (Ala. Crim. App. 2000) (quoting trial court's sentencing order describing the crime).
Kim Chandler, "Son of Woman Murdered by Man Now on Death Row Asks Alabama to Stop His Execution," Associated Press, Sept. 23, 2025, https://www.live5news.com/2025/09/23/son-woman-murdered-by-man-now-death-row-asks-alabama-stop-his-execution.
Ibid; Chandler, supra note 2.
Alabama Attorney General's Office, "Attorney General Steve Marshall's Statement on the Execution of Convicted Murderer Geoffrey Todd West" (Sept. 25, 2025), https://www.alabamaag.gov/attorney-general-steve-marshalls-statement-on-the-execution-of-convicted-murderer-geoffrey-todd-west/.
West v. State, 793 So.2d 870, 873 (Ala. Crim. App. 2000) (The trial court's sentencing order states: "In the late hours of March 27, 1997, or early morning of March 28, 1997, Geoffrey Todd West and his girlfriend drove to Harold's Chevron located at 2920 Noccalula Parkway").
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid ("The Defendant had previously been employed at this convenience store").
Ibid ("The Defendant previously had expressed to others his intention to rob the Chevron Store and to 'leave no witnesses,' 'kill the person up there'").
Ibid ("West entered the store armed with a .45 caliber handgun").
Ibid, 873 ("[T]he circumstances indicate that he held the attendant Berry at gunpoint").
Ibid ("[H]e... took $250.00 from a cookie can where the store money was kept").
Ibid, 873 ("The medical evidence indicates that Berry was shot in the back of the head while lying prone on the floor behind the counter of the store").
Ibid ("According to the medical examiner, the 'wound would cause rapid incapacitation and a very rapid death'").
Alabama Department of Corrections records; Amy Pearce plea agreement (1998). Pearce received a 35-year sentence for her role in the robbery and killing.
West v. State, 793 So.2d 870 (Ala. Crim. App. 2000). West was convicted of capital murder on June 1, 1999.
Ibid, 870 ("After a sentencing hearing, the jury recommended, by a vote of 10-2, that the appellant be sentenced to death. The trial court accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced the appellant to death").
Alabama Department of Corrections, Death Row Records (1999--2025). West was sentenced in 1999 and executed in 2025, spending 26 years on death row.
Alabama Attorney General's Office, Statement, supra note 7 ("She gave West the cash on hand, and he executed her").
Analysis of crime's circumstances.
Timeline calculation: Margaret Berry was 33 years old in 1997; West spent 26 years on death row.
Chandler, supra note 2; Chandler, supra note 5.
Chandler, supra note 2 ("There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret it and wish that I could take that back").
Ibid ("I'm so very sorry for what I've taken away from you, and I hope and pray you forgive me").
Ibid ("If you don't have nowhere else to go, go to church, find a priest, and just tell them everything. But just don't do what I did, man. You've got an option, even if you don't feel like you've got an option").
Analysis of remorse in capital cases.
Alabama Attorney General's Office, Statement, supra note 7. West "has been on death row for twenty-six years, and his sentence is due."
Ibid; analysis of transformation's legal irrelevance under Alabama law.
Chandler, supra note 5. Berry was 11 when his mother was killed in 1997.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid (Berry stated that "time and faith have given him a different perspective").
Ibid ("I forgive this guy, and I don't want him to die. I don't want the state to take revenge in my name or my family's name for my mother").
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid (Berry joined death penalty opponents at a vigil outside the Alabama Capitol on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025).
Ibid; Kim Chandler photographs from Capitol vigil (Sept. 23, 2025). Berry rang a bell to symbolize opposition to the death penalty.
Chandler, supra note 5 (Berry helped deliver a petition to Governor Ivey's office asking that the execution be halted).
Ibid (Berry and West exchanged letters in the weeks before the execution).
Ibid (The two men requested permission to meet face to face before the execution).
Ibid (Prison officials denied the request, citing security regulations forbidding visits between people in prison and victims).
Analysis of meeting denial and security rationale.
Will Berry, Letter to Governor Kay Ivey (Sept. 2025), excerpted in Chandler reporting (Berry wrote that West's death would "weigh heavily on me, and it would not bring my mother back").
Governor Kay Ivey, Letter to Will Berry (Sept. 11, 2025), excerpted in Chandler reporting (Ivey wrote that Alabama law "imposes a death sentence for the most egregious form of murder" and that it was her duty as governor to carry out the law).
Analysis of Berry-Ivey exchange.
Ibid.
Alabama Attorney General's Office, Statement, supra note 7.
Analysis of "sentence is due" framing.
Alabama Attorney General's Office, Statement, supra note 7.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Alabama Department of Corrections, Nitrogen Hypoxia Election Records (2018). West elected nitrogen gas as his preferred execution method in 2018, before any protocol had been developed.
Comparison to Miller and Frazier cases; see Chapters 2 and 4.
Ibid.
Legal precedent from Smith through Hunt cases, Chapters 1--6. Courts consistently rejected Eighth Amendment challenges to nitrogen hypoxia.
Settled legal framework analysis (Sept. 2025).
Alabama execution warrant, State v. West (Sept. 2025). Governor Ivey established a 30-hour window for the execution, beginning at 12:00 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, and ending at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025.
Alabama Department of Corrections, Final Day Visitation Log (Sept. 25, 2025). West received eight visitors: his attorneys, his mother, father, stepfather, brother, nephews, cousin, and spiritual advisor Patrick Madden.
Comparison to Hunt's isolation, Chapter 6.
Alabama Department of Corrections records, supra note 62 (West's final meal was chicken quesadillas).
Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Execution Information (Blaine Milam, Sept. 25, 2025).
Death Penalty Information Center, supra note 1 (National executions reached their highest total since 2014).
Ibid. Florida set a new state record for executions in 2025.
Alabama Department of Corrections, Execution Timeline (Sept. 25, 2025). The execution began at approximately 5:56 p.m.
Chandler, supra note 2 (When Warden Terry Raybon asked if West had final words, West replied, "No sir").
Ibid. "Strapped to the gurney with a blue-rimmed gas mask covering his face, he gave a thumbs-up in the direction of his attorney, who was seated in a viewing room, as the execution began."
Analysis of thumbs-up gesture.
Chandler, supra note 2 ("West's eyes were open as he appeared to gasp and struggle for breath during the first two minutes of the execution"; West "appeared to slightly foam at the mouth"; "His head rocked from side to side"; "His left fist curled up"; West "appeared to turn a pale blue color" and "salivate at the mouth"; "could be heard gasping for air from the witness room through the glass").
Ibid; analysis of conscious awareness during initial phase of nitrogen administration.
Witness accounts from Clifton, supra note 2; and other media sources (Sept. 25, 2025).
Alabama Department of Corrections, Official Death Certification (6:22 p.m., Sept. 25, 2025).
Comparative timeline analysis across seven nitrogen executions. All executions have taken between 16 and 29 minutes from start to death pronouncement.
John Q. Hamm, Press Conference, supra note 2 ("It's been previously stated that there's always involuntary movement and everybody is different, because we have seen a variation in movement in the six we've done, but West was the least movement we've seen").
Ibid.
Chandler observation, supra note 72.
Analysis of "least movement" claim vs. observable facts.
Hamm, Press Conference, supra note 2 ("People that die, they start changing colors, but I didn't notice the skin on his arms").
Analysis of cyanosis acknowledgment.
Hamm viewing angle qualifier. Clifton, supra note 2 (reported Hamm stated he could see "very little of his face" from where he sat).
Hamm, Press Conference, supra note 2 (Hamm stated he "didn't see any salivation or foaming at the mouth" because from where he sits, he can see "very little of his face").
Analysis of limited visibility admission.
Ibid (When asked how Alabama knows the movements are "involuntary," Hamm responded: "It's just my opinion, just like [the media has] an opinion of what you see").
Analysis of "opinion" vs. medical fact.
Ibid.
Hamm, Press Conference, supra note 2 (Hamm said the execution went "just as expected according to protocol").
Analysis of "least movement" claim vs. potential protocol changes.
Alabama protocol secrecy analysis.
Hamm, Press Conference, supra note 2 ("The gas flowed for five minutes past flatline").
Ibid; Clifton, supra note 2 (reported Hamm confirmed gas flowed for 15 minutes total, with 5 of those minutes being past West's flatline).
Ibid.
Analysis of extended gas flow implications.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Governor Kay Ivey, Statement on Execution of Geoffrey Todd West (Sept. 25, 2025) ("Almost 30 years ago, Margaret Parrish Berry went to work at the convenience store, but she would never get to return home. Geoffrey West went in with the intent to rob and kill, and he cowardly shot Ms. Berry in the back of the head. Alabama law imposes death as punishment for the most egregious forms of murder, and there was no question of Mr. West's guilt by the jury in this case or any court over the last three decades").
Ibid; analysis of Berry omission from Ivey's statement.
Ibid.
Ibid (Ivey stated, "[I]t is my solemn duty as governor to carry out these laws").
Ivey clemency record analysis (2017--2025). Ivey has commuted only one death sentence during her eight years as governor, and only because of questions about the person's guilt.
Ibid.
Attorney General Steve Marshall, Statement on West Execution (Sept. 25, 2025), supra note 7.
Ibid ("While working an honest job at a convenience store, Margaret Berry was executed in cold blood for $250. There is no doubt or dispute over the facts of this case, but thanks to legal gamesmanship, justice has been delayed for 26 years").
Analysis of "legal gamesmanship" characterization.
Ibid.
Marshall Statement, supra note 7 ("As a country, we must stand firmly in our beliefs between right and wrong, justice and forgiveness. Alabama is steadfast in our commitment to holding the guilty accountable because that is what honors the dignity of every victim").
Ibid; analysis of justice vs. forgiveness binary.
Will Berry's actual argument analysis; Chandler, supra note 5.
Abraham Bonowitz, Executive Director, Death Penalty Action, Statement (Sept. 25, 2025) ("The truth is that none of these executions are necessary to keep us safe or hold accountable those who have committed terrible crimes. We know this because the vast majority of murder cases do not end with an execution").
Ibid.
Ibid; Death penalty discretion analysis.
Ibid.
Hamm "least movement" claim, supra note 77.
Analysis of best-case scenario implications.
Lack of independent verification analysis. Alabama refuses to release detailed observational data or permit independent medical monitoring.
Hamm's limited view acknowledgment, supra notes 81--85.
Transparency and success claims analysis.
Hamm "opinion" admission, supra note 86.
Foundation of humanity claims analysis.
Will Berry's campaign, supra notes 5, 40--47.
State dismissal of Berry's opposition analysis.
"Justice for victims" rhetoric limits analysis.
Berry explicit statements, supra note 37.
Analysis of state interest superseding victim family preferences.
Ivey letter to Berry, supra note 48.
Analysis of clemency deliberation treatment.
Victim families matter only when supporting executions analysis.
Marshall "sentence is due" statement, supra note 51.
26-year delay questions analysis.
West age timeline: West was 21 at time of crime (1997), convicted June 1, 1999, and executed Sept. 25, 2025, at age 50.
More than half life on death row calculation.
Penological goals and delay analysis.
Delay as additional punishment analysis.
Berry evolution analysis, supra note 5.
Both Berry and West transformation over 26 years.
Ibid.
Fixed identity vs. actual change analysis.
Hamm "variation in movement" statement, supra note 77.
Analysis of inconsistency implications.
Three possible explanations analysis: (1) individual physiological differences, (2) variations in mask fit or gas flow, (3) some condemned prisoners experience more conscious suffering than others.
Reliability and humanity claims undermined.
Consistency requirement in execution protocols.
Protocol improvement prevented by secrecy.
West thumbs-up gesture, supra note 70.
Comparison to Grayson and Hunt gestures, Chapters 3 and 6.
Conscious awareness demonstrated by gesture.
Instantaneous unconsciousness claim contradicted.
Death pronouncement details, supra note 75. West was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., approximately 26 minutes after the execution began.
Seventh nitrogen execution summary. West was the seventh person executed by nitrogen hypoxia---the sixth in Alabama, following Smith (Jan. 2024), Miller (Sept. 2024), Grayson (Nov. 2024), Frazier (Feb. 2025), and Hunt (June 2025). Hoffman was executed in Louisiana (Mar. 2025).
Execution despite remorse, Berry advocacy, and suffering questions.
"Least movement" characterization analysis.
Lack of independent verification, supra note 117.
Berry preferences dismissed, supra notes 99--101.
"Executing in victims' names" rhetoric analysis.
Normalization within Alabama system.
Efficient execution process analysis.
Alabama 2025 pace analysis. By Sept., Alabama had executed four people: Frazier, Osgood, Hunt, and West.
Nitrogen hypoxia overcoming practical obstacles that previously slowed executions.
Reliable alternative to lethal injection, immune from pharmaceutical boycotts.
National execution spike statistics, Death Penalty Information Center, supra note 1.
Factors contributing to 2025 spike: Supreme Court taking less active role in death penalty intervention, political support from federal leadership, adoption of alternative execution methods.
West's contribution to national trend.
Progression across Chapters 1--7 analysis.
Seven executions establishing consistent distress pattern.
West's remorse, Berry's forgiveness, sentence "due" analysis.
Seventh death as data point in empirical record.