Texas and Alabama are poised to execute death row inmates within minutes of each other on the same day this week.
On Thursday, Sept. 25, Alabama is set to execute Geoffrey West, 50, by the relatively new method of nitrogen gas. He was convicted of the 1997 murder of Margaret Parrish Berry, a mother of two, during the robbery of the gas station where she worked.
At about the same time, Texas is set to execute Blaine Milam, 35, by lethal injection for the 2008 death of his girlfriend's 13-month-old baby in what Milam and her mother described as an "exorcism." Milam was interviewed by German filmmaker Werner Herzog for a 2013 series called "On Death Row."
Both executions are scheduled for 6 p.m. CT. If they move forward as expected, the number of executions in the United States this year will reach 33, the most in a year since 2014. It's also the fifth time this year executions have been carried out on the same day.
As their time runs out, USA TODAY is looking at each inmate's case and who their victims were.
