USA: Two simultaneous executions in Alabama and Texas – Geoffrey West and Blaine Milam executed
Two death sentences were carried out at once in the USA. This means that 33 people have already been executed in the United States this year – and the execution orders have already been signed for a further 10 executions. The USA has not recorded this many executed death sentences since 2012.
Geoffrey Todd West (Alabama)
On Thursday evening, 50-year-old Geoffrey Todd West was executed by nitrogen by the US state of Alabama. He was sentenced to death for shooting a store employee during a robbery at a grocery store in 1997, which he committed together with his girlfriend.
The victim’s son, Will Berry, now 34, has campaigned vehemently and publicly for the death sentence not to be carried out – without success: “I don’t want anyone to take revenge in my name or in my mother’s name.”
Governor Kay Ivey, however, found no mercy – in fact, she also refused to agree to a meeting between Will Berry and Geoffrey West, which Berry had requested and West had agreed to.
In a statement released by his lawyers, West said: “I am sorry. I have privately apologized to the family of Margaret Parrish Berry and am grateful for the forgiveness her son Will has extended to me. I was baptized into the Catholic Church earlier this year and confirmed yesterday. I am at peace with myself because I know where I am going.”
The execution was carried out using the controversial method of nitrogen hypoxia, which is basically suffocation due to oxygen deprivation. As eyewitnesses described it, West shook his head a few times and clenched his fists. His eyes rolled back and he began to drool. He took several deep breaths, followed by several shallow breaths. Witnesses also heard him gasp for air before he stopped moving.
Blaine Milam (Texas)
Also on Thursday evening in the US state of Texas, 35-year-old Blaine Milam was executed with a lethal injection, an overdose of pentobarbital. He was sentenced to death for allegedly causing the death of his girlfriend’s 13-month-old daughter together with his girlfriend or fiancée after an agonizing ordeal in December 2008.
The couple explained that an exorcism had been carried out to exorcize a demon from the child’s body. Milam had blamed his girlfriend at the time for the murder, saying that it was she who had claimed that the girl had been possessed by a demon.
She was tried separately from Milam and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of aiding and abetting Milam’s murder. Both were 18 years old at the time of the crime.
Milam’s lawyers had unsuccessfully asked the Supreme Court to halt the execution because his conviction was based in part on “now disproven” bite marks and other unreliable DNA evidence. They also said he was mentally retarded and therefore should not be executed.
In his final words, Milam thanked his supporters as well as the prison chaplaincy for opening its religious programs to death row inmates.
“If any of you want to see me again, I ask all of you, no matter who you are, to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and we will meet again, he said from the execution couch. “I love you all. Take me home, Jesus.”
It was Milam’s third execution date – he had received a stay of execution in 2019 and 2021.
Sources:
https://alabamareflector.com/2025/09/25/alabama-executes-geoffrey-todd-west-in-fourth-execution-of-2025/
https://alabamareflector.com/2025/09/11/i-dont-want-alabama-to-execute-my-mothers-killer-i-dont-want-revenge-in-my-name/
https://apnews.com/article/texas-execution-blaine-milam-exorcism-killing-330e96315b326ec24c5abf16130eff86
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/25/texas-execution-blaine-milam/