Alabama, Texas Put 2 Men to Death

Two executions took place Thursday night, the 32nd and 33rd in the US this year:

• An Alabama man convicted of killing a woman during a 1997 gas station robbery was put to death Thursday after apologizing to his victim's family and pleas from the woman's son to spare his life, the AP reports. Geoffrey Todd West, 50, was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility by nitrogen gas, a method Alabama began using last year. In a final statement provided by his attorney, West said: "I have apologized privately to the family of Margaret Parrish Berry, and am humbled by the forgiveness her son, Will, has extended." Will Berry, who was 11 when his mother was killed, urged Alabama's governor to commute West's sentence to life in prison. He said taking another life will not help his family. He exchanged letters with West ahead of the execution.

• A Texas man was executed Thursday for killing his girlfriend's 13-month-old daughter in a torturous ordeal the couple said was part of an "exorcism" to expel a demon from the child's body, the AP reports. Blaine Milam, 35, was pronounced dead at 6:40pm following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the December 2008 death of Amora Carson at his trailer in Rusk County in East Texas. Milam had blamed then-girlfriend Jesseca Carson for the killing and alleged she was the one who claimed the girl was possessed by a demon. She was tried separately from Milam and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of capital murder for helping Milam. Both were 18 at the time.