Execution Date Set for Man Convicted in 1997 Attalla Gas Station Murder

ATTALLA, Ala. – A man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk during a 1997 robbery in Attalla is now scheduled to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia later this year, nearly three decades after the crime shook Attalla and Etowah County.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced Thursday that 49-year-old Geoffrey Todd West will be executed sometime between midnight on Thursday, September 25, and 6 a.m. on Friday, September 26. The execution will be carried out using nitrogen gas — a method recently approved in the state.

West was convicted in the brutal murder of 33-year-old Margaret Parrish Berry, who was working at Harold’s Chevron in Attalla at the time of the incident. According to prosecutors, West — a former employee of the store — returned to the gas station on March 28, 1997, with his girlfriend, intending to rob it.

Berry was shot execution-style in the back of the head while lying on the floor behind the counter. Court records indicate that $250 was stolen from a cookie can that held the store’s cash. West and his girlfriend fled the scene, but were later arrested and charged.

West was convicted of capital murder in Etowah County, and a jury voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty. Circuit Judge William Cardwell upheld that recommendation during sentencing in 1999, calling the killing “clearly deliberate and intentional.”

“It is difficult to order the execution of a young man,” Judge Cardwell said at the time, “but this was a senseless act carried out execution-style.”

West’s girlfriend pleaded guilty to her role in the crime and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

 Alabama carried out its first nitrogen execution earlier this year.

Attalla residents still remember the case as one of the most shocking crimes in recent memory — a robbery that turned into a cold-blooded killing at a familiar neighborhood gas station.

West remains on death row at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore as final preparations for the execution are underway.

GKI Letter to Commissioner John Hamm 07-03-2025