Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of Charles “Sonny” Burton, who has been on death row for more than 30 years. File Image courtesy of Florida Department of Corrections
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of a man who has been on death row for more than 30 years.
Charles “Sonny” Burton was convicted for participating in a robbery that resulted in the killing of 34-year-old Doug Battle in 1991. However, Burton was not the triggerman and Ivey said he had left the scene of the robbery before the killing occurred.
Burton will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Alabama law allows for participants in a felony to be convicted of murder if the felony results in death, whether their actions directly caused the death or not.
The robbery occurred at an AutoZone in Talladega, Ala. Burton was one of six men involved and said he was running out of the store before shots were fired. The gunman, Derrick DeBruce, was sentenced to life without parole.
Ivey said it would not be right for Burton to serve a harsher sentence than the killer.
“I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr. Burton under such disparate circumstances,” Ivey said in a statement. “I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not.”
Burton has been scheduled to be executed Thursday.
It is only the second time that Ivey has commuted a death sentence. The first time was 2023 in the case of Robin “Rocky” Myers, a blind, intellectually disabled man convicted on disputed testimony. He had spent about 30 years on death row.
Prosecutors agreed with Burton’s account of the killing of Battle, but Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement that he disagrees with Ivey’s decision.
“There has never been any doubt that Sonny Burton has Douglas Battle’s blood on his hands,” Marshall said.
