Death penalty

I was 11 years old in 1997 when Geoffrey West shot and killed my mother, Margaret Parrish Berry, while robbing the Attalla gas station where she worked. Mr. West was sentenced to death. His execution date is set for tonight, September 25. He is due to be killed by nitrogen gas. But I do not want the state of Alabama to kill him. That won’t bring my mother back; it will only add to the pain I have lived with since the night she was shot. I believe there is a better way.My mother was the person I loved most in the world. Her absence, and the senseless way she died, has cast a long shadow over my life. Even so, the weeks since I learned that Governor Ivey set an execution date for Mr. West have been some of the most unsettling I can recall. My dearest wish is to meet with Mr. West.

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of stabbing four Idaho college students to death, could face a firing squad if convicted.  At his arraignment Monday, Kohberger “stood silent” when asked to enter a plea, leaving the judge to formally enter a not guilty plea on the suspect’s behalf. A trial is scheduled for October 2.  The prosecution has sixty days to notify the court if they want to pursue the death penalty — and because of a new Idaho law that goes into effect on July 1, the state could administer the death penalty by firing squad if lethal injection drugs are not available.  Idaho governor Brad Little signed the law on March 24 after it passed both chambers of the Idaho Legislature.