Hey there, folks. It is Tuesday, September twenty third, and a man is pleading, begging it, the state of Alabama not to execute the convicted killer.
Who shot his mom in the head. Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Rose.
We hear this every once in a while, which we right now have a man begging it to spare the life of the man who killed his mother.
It's remarkable, and when you hear his impassioned plea, I you can't help but feel for this man and wish that more people could have his grace and his forgiveness. And there's so much to be learned from what this son feels for this killer. It's remarkable to me.
I didn't plan to go here yet, but you made me think of something. Does it require faith? Because when I hear about stories like this, oftentimes it's people of very strong faith attached to it.
I think that that is almost certain and almost always the case. I can't think of an example where it hasn't been attributed to God, to being christ Like, to faith. Yes, that's where it stems from.
Because we just saw and I obviously what we saw with Erica Kirk was a chilling moment that most of us cannot relate to in many ways, that level of forgiveness. It made us think about Charleston as well. You remember how quickly those parishioners forgave that guy who goes and shoots up a church full of people praying literally in Bible class. They forgave him at It wasn't even at trial. It was like his bail hearing or something like, very
very quickly. I don't know how. I'm not a man of that type of faith that grew up in the church as did you. But that concept of that forgiveness Christ on the Cross, forgive them for they know not what they do as he's being killed. That's the spirit of this, I.
Suppose, And it's that value of human life and what we're hearing from this son in his plea to not have his mother's killer killed, which his execution is set for this week for Thursday, he talks about the value of this man's life and the value of being able to have conversations with him, and he even said ultimately his wish would be to be able to see him, meet him and pray with him. That is remarkable.
Yeah, we shoul I'll tell you what we were talking about here. The killer is Jeffrey West. He is the convicted killer, and he is as we speak, scheduled to be executed in Alabama this week by nitrogen gas. This is supposed to happen on Thursday evening, so the clock is now ticking. He was convicted of a nineteen ninety seven murder of Margaret Parish Barry. She was a woman who was working in a gas station, had two sons. She worked at a support obviously her family. She was
shot and killed. She cooperated, according to authorities, gave the money. It netted Jeffrey West and his girlfriend at the time two hundred and fifty bucks. And this woman was shot and killed as she laid on the floor behind the counter. She was executed, according to police, because they did not want to leave witnesses. That's the horror of the crime. Will Barry Robes was eleven years old at the time.
That then eleven year old, now an adult male is saying that the man who did that to my mother and robbed me at eleven years old, I want to spare.
His life right. And Jeffrey West, the man convicted of this crime, who admits the crime was twenty one at the time Will Barry was eleven. Think about that, they're just ten years apart. You know, they're almost in terms of just at this point in age, he's forty and Jeffrey West is fifty and he wants to have a relationship with this man, which is remarkable to me. But it is one of the worst crimes, being shot execution style, This poor woman, knowing she's got two young sons at home.
I can't even imagine the grief and the horror and the And that's not a crime that is one and done. That is something that you live with for the rest of your life, that has affected your life from the moment your mom was taken away from you at such a young age. So for him to be able to be at this place and space in his life is nothing short of a miracle.
See I thought, even so, how this kind of all got going here? In a lot of ways, spokes is that Barry and West, yes, the convicted killer and the son of the woman he's convicted of killing, have been exchanging letters, and from all descriptions at least I've read robes, they're like almost pleasantries. I don't want to go that far. But I'm saying these are notes in which they have found some kind of peace with each within each other.
I mean, it's it's a beautiful thing because obviously, well I don't say obviously, because not all convicted murderers feel this way. But Jeffrey West has expressed true remorse, and we can get into some of his specific quotes because they are powerful. And then you have Will Barry expressing this incredible desire to forgive and to have those two things come together in this moment and to have them share that back and forth where Will Barry is willing
to give him grace. That is just a something you don't see every day.
And well, he's requested that's one Forgiveness is one thing. Letting go its one thing. I mean people have forgiven and still not try to stop at execution. This is a different situation in which West and Barry have actually requested no. I should correct that Barry was the one who requested he wanted to meet with the killer. He wanted to meet the man who killed his mother. He put that request in through West's attorneys and through his team,
and they okayed it. But they're not being allowed to see each other and Rome's I guess it kind of makes sense to have these rules in place.
They say it's about security, that you can't have a victim of the crime meet the criminal because there are security concerns. They're concerned about what people's.
Intent might be.
You say, you want to go there to have a pleasant conversation or to perhaps have some closure for something, and then violence could ensue. So they just for they just put out a general rule for everybody. Sorry, we can't make exceptions, but this is a matter of security.
Which makes perfect I guess that I don't know if exceptions or any safety exceptions could ever be made, but this is how far he's going. I just find it remarkable Robes that this man is not just he's not just pleading for the sake of pleading and just saying I don't want that on my conscious kind of a thing. He's saying, there is something valuable in this man being alive to his life that has been now denied so much because he didn't have his mom to hear that
I need this man for something in my life. Please don't kill him. That doesn't go far in the court of the law, but in a heart in your heart, like God, whatever.
I know.
We've seen this happen before, where you have victims' family members. The surviving family members literally beg authorities not to put the murderer of the person who took away their loved one to death because they don't want that on their conscience. And I believe Barry said something to the effect of, I know it's being done on my behalf in the sense that I am the person who suffered the most.
I am the victim of the crime because I'm the one who lost my mother, and I'm the one saying, please, please, don't murder this man on my behalf. It's almost as if he feels like it weighs on his conscience that somehow he's responsible for now what will be almost certainly the death of Jeffrey West.
Haven't I heard a time?
Please?
Maybe you can think of one off the top of your head. I've heard some families not want a person to be executed because no, we want to stay in prison and suffer.
Right, So yes, I have to that. It's more punishment. It's an easy way out is death. The hard way out is to actually have to live with the crime and wake up every morning behind bars.
I would be totally okay. I don't know how this could work ever legally, but I think the victims family should decide if they say no, we do not want this person executed, then they shouldn't be executed. I don't think they should be able to say yes, but if the family says we don't wish.
This, I would be so fine. If that were written into the laws. They should have a veto basically, a veto power basically where they could say, Okay, I understand that the state has sentenced him to death. I understand that a jury of his peers has sentenced him to death. But I get a veto, and if the victims agree, then I would be fully for that. That makes perfect sense.
We know we're not probably going to see that no. That would also another thing I just thought about because so many, how many victims feel as if there's no one advocating for them, there's nobody on their side, victims, families, even in this case of a Barry talking about he didn't get any kind of heads up that there was an execution date. He had to find out about it
on Facebook or something like that. Those types of things, like they don't feel like they have any power or say and oftentimes of what happens, and nobody's advocating for them, So this would be some level of involvement or control, if you will.
Yeah, I mean, it's funny. As soon as you said that, I thought immediately of the Epstein victims. But this is just another example, and this is unfortunately the way our legal system work. We don't give enough credit to or at least we don't. We don't give them the bare minimum, the victims and the people left behind, to not be notified, to not be included in the process, to not be listened to, regarded, or even have what you want to
happen be considered. That is that's tough, and I don't think that's We don't treat victims and victims' families correctly in our legal system period.
We hear it all the time, right, getting victimized over and over again. Yeah, he's getting victimized, victimized. Well, folks, this one. Some of these details have been kind of chilling, and they kind of stir you, they kind of inspire you to a certain degree as well. But I assure you you ain't heard nothing yet. Stay here with us
when we come back. We are going to read some of the most powerful words from the victim's son, words in which he is making a very public plea, do not kill the man that killed my mom.
Welcome back to this edition of Amy and TJ, where we are talking about a scheduled education execution that is said to happen on Thursday. A man who murdered a mother of two execution style during a robbery. He is set to die by nitrogen gas in the state of Alabama. His name is Jeffrey West. He was twenty one at the time at the crime. He's fifty now. But the remarkable thing about this story is the son of the woman who he murdered is now making an impassioned plea
to have that execution. State He would like to see Jeffrey West live out the rest of his life behind bars, but he would like the opportunity to meet with him, connect with him, pray with him. And he thinks there is value in letting this man live. And it is a powerful, powerful letter that he wrote to authorities trying to see if he can have any impact or any influence over this execution again that is scheduled on Thursday.
And just to note, Jeffrey West. We have some quotes from him about his level of remorse, not that that makes it okay, not that it makes him any less guilty. He says, there is not a day that goes by that I don't regret it and wish that I could take that back. Of course, he's referring to the murder. I wish I had the opportunity just to swap places and let it be me and not her.
Can you, I mean, it's hard to It is difficult, but people can change see things differently. He's had almost thirty years to think about this, and it's difficult to have remorse or feel bad for someone who did such a horrific crime. But can we be open to the possibility that what he did then is who he was and what he said now is who he is now.
I think that's absolutely possibly hard to do. He was twenty one. Look, I'm not excusing anything that he did at all. It's disgusting, horrific, and he should be behind bars for the rest of his life. But he was twenty one, and it was interesting for me to think about the fact that this young kid, this son, now who is standing up for this man who murdered his mother was eleven at the time. They're ten years apart, so.
There could be brothers.
They yes, right that ten years doesn't mean anything now at this point in terms of a difference in how they probably view the world. But certainly they've had very different experiences, and certainly Barry has suffered greatly because of what this man did.
And Will Berry, we want to let you hear it in his words. He wrote an extended op ed a little bit back that was put in a local paper there. But he explains better than we can where his head is. I will start with his first excerp. He says, quote, mister West was sentenced to death for killing my mother. His execution data set for September twenty fifth, But I do not want the state of Alabama to kill him.
That won't bring back my mother. It will only add to the pain I have lived with since the night she was shot. I believe there is a better way. Like hearing that line, how can you deny his request? You haven't even heard that, like, oh, some of the heaviest stuff. But that's just it's sincere, and I know the law is the law. He wrote to the governor. The governor wrote back, said she has to do what the law requires her to do. I get it, but she does have the options.
She said that she has stayed one execution, but that was because there was some doubt into whether or not that person had actually committed the crime, and that is the only time she's done it. It doesn't sound like she is willing to consider that in this case.
Should we do we remind me? Please? Don't prosecutors talk to families ahead of time, say hey about a plea deal? They often talked to them about. Do they also give them and say, hey, would you like us to go for the death penalty? Would you not do they?
I don't know. I think they should. But the problem was will Berry was eleven years old at the time, so they would never take the word or the thoughts or sentiments of an eleven year old. They wouldn't put that on him. So I think he was just too young to weigh in. And I don't know what the other family members generally speak.
I'm trying to think of cases. I'm thinking more so law and order or something maybe right now I'm what I'm trying to think of cases. Do prosecutors often consult with the family and take into account their wishes.
Wouldn't it be at the discretion of the prosecutor. I don't know that there's some hard fast rule. It probably is case my case.
If they some maybe do it, some maybe don't. But yeah, that was that's this guy. Your heart hurts for this guy.
We want to read some more of what he wrote in this op ed because this will move you. 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 Ivy set an execution date for mister West have been some of the most unsettling I can recall. My dearest wish is to meet with
mister West. Yet with only weeks left until his execution date, it's not clear who has the power to make that happen, or how to ask them directly?
Is life from eleven years old to now? That chunk of his life he needs some resolve too, and he's got the clock is ticking. Any answer he needs or anything, any piece he wants. The clock is ticking for this guy.
That is It's yeah, it's a matter of days. And here's here's a really really significant part of what he wrote. Because we were just talking about how victims are not empowered in our legal system, and so he writes, I was a child when mister West took my mother's life, old enough to understand what had happened, but too young to process it. I had no say at the trial. I've had no say since then. No one from the Alabama Attorney General's office called me in April to say
they had requested an execution date. No one from the governor's office called in July when Governor Ivy said it. If my wife hadn't stumbled across an article on Facebook, I'm not sure when I would have learned.
Obviously that's horrible. Okay, obviously that's awful. Obviously that's terrible. And I think too many, so many victims have that story, don't they.
Yes, this is a common theme that we need to correct, that we can correct in this country.
So he feels like a victim again, and now the thing that can give him peace, He says, the clock is ticking for him. I don't have you seen anywhere in researching this story. I don't think he has any options left. I guess the Supreme Court maybe would be the only one with the governor.
The governor it's the end, you know, they've got the phone sitting there, but she's already said, she's already said she's not going to So it doesn't look like there's much he can do. But just to hear this, this man's plea, that this is causing him even more pain, is just.
I don't know, how is there a a who are you harming by not executing the guy? Right? So I guess the state of Alabama can say, no, he's a horrible person. We've decided, and we have laws, and we want him dead. But the person impacted most by his action who gets whose word should count in this matter?
And this next excerpt here Robes is the one where he really gets into and you give some insight into how his faith is informing his belief and his decision and his push and his plea to save this man's life.
Now, I believe in the teachings of Jesus and in his words on the Mount, For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. My faith teaches that every trial we endure brings us closer to salvation. It teaches submission to God's will.
This next line here, he said that he believes that in seeking his execution, the state of Alabama is playing God. What do we do with that?
Oh?
This is now a a what it's become now a death penalty debate to a certain degree, and a lot of people have an issue with that. I don't want anyone to exactly revenge in my name, he says, nor in my mother. I believe life without the possibility of parole is just punishment. There is an ending to this story where mister West and I find comfort in each other and in the healing power of forgiveness. What the actual wow.
That brings tears to my eyes? Because then he goes further and says, I want to tell mister West that I forgive him, and I want to ask questions both about what happened that night and about who he is as a man. In some ways, I suppose I just want to be in a room with him. Through his legal team, mister West has agreed to my request, even in what may be the last weeks of his life. He is willing to spend time with me and reckon with the harm he has caused. I believe that speaks
well of him. Despite the deadly mistake he made the night he killed my mother. I know that she forgives him and that she would want me to sit down with him. Oh that makes me like cry, how are you going.
To deny that guy's request. I know it's a legal process, but my good, sweet lord, the part there he sounded like a guy that if you were in front of him, it sounds like almost he said, I don't know, just please, I just want to get in a room with him, Like he doesn't have it all figured out.
I just need this just it's closure for him, and it's a connection to his mother. He was the last person to see his mother alive, but he was.
Also the one who caused her to have that last moment of life. Whoo, this one is man.
Wow. And then he goes on to say, and this is what we've been speaking to. The criminal justice system is not built with victims needs, wishes and well being in mind. I know that as well as anybody, because what is being done in my name is not what
I need or want. I know the clemency is a lot to ask for, but having spoken with a restorative justice specialist who is also in communication with mister West, I feel hopeful there could be a future where he and I might sit down together, where we might pray together.
Who is this guy?
Is an amazing human being?
You take the last one here, I'm crying out for the moment.
This, this last one is is a powerful way to close this and to give us all something to think about.
Someone we may need to forgive in our lives, even if it's ourselves. But this is just beautiful. He says time is working against us. Time is working against all of us.
So I know that was the first point I was making. Yes, he his first line there applies to everybody.
Time is working against us. Whether or not she can see her way to granting clemency, at the very least, I hope Governor Ivy will grant a reprieve, which she has the authority to do. That time would allow mister West, his family, and mine to engage in vital healing conversations. I need time to heal all.
I have never ever, ever, ever gotten involved politically and advocating for somebody to get the death pill on me or not. But he is not even asking to spare his life moving forward. Just give me a beat, she is. He's actually saying a reprieve. Just give me a reprieve so we can have some time to do what I need to do. How can you deny that? And not a human level, bro, not a legal level, not a state of alabima. Is on a human level.
It's heartbreaking because because he wants he's not allowed to meet this man. He's not allowed to talk to this man. And that's all he's asking for is time to do so.
You can put them behind glass. We can guarantee safety.
We can do that, absolutely, they can.
We can do that.
I just that part.
Just I need a minute, give me a reprieve, just delay to let this happen. We don't know what's going to happen. We're not obviously laws, government, governor. These are all tough decisions and we get it. But this, if
ever an exception to be made, I don't know. If there's some I don't know what the damage is ropes in setting a precedent or something, I don't know, But what is the damage in giving an eleven year old kid, which is what he is, which is what he's stuck at as far as his relationship with his mom, giving that kid a moment he's not had.
Unfortunately, we know how these things typically turn out. We will, of course stay on top of it. But yes, right now, Jeffrey West's execution is set for this Thursday. We will keep you updated, but we hope at the very least this moves some of you. All of you, I know it has certainly us to have that forgiving spirit in our hearts because you are set free from that anger and that resentment. And this is just a beautiful example in a world where we don't have many moments like these.
But also, yes, very reminiscent of Erica Kirk this past week. So with that, everyone, thank you for listening to us. I'm Ami Roebach alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you really soon.