BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama has set an execution date for Charles Burton, a 75-year-old man convicted in a 1991 robbery that turned fatal at an AutoZone in Talladega, despite opposition from surviving jurors and members of the victim’s family who say his sentence should be commuted.
In 1991, six men were charged with capital murder for the robbery. Although Burton was not the shooter, he is scheduled to be executed next week, according to reporting by All Alabama.
Four of the defendants reached agreements with the state to avoid the death penalty. The shooter, Derrick DeBruce, was sentenced to death, but that sentence was later overturned after his rights were found to have been violated at trial. All Alabama reported that Gov. Kay Ivey has scheduled Burton’s execution for March 13.
According to All Alabama, prosecutors and Burton’s attorneys agree that Burton was not the person who pulled the trigger. It is widely accepted that Burton was already outside the store when a customer, Doug Battle, was shot.
During Burton’s trial, jurors unanimously agreed to impose the death penalty. However, Burton’s attorney, Matt Schulz, said that in light of DeBruce being resentenced to life without the possibility of parole in 2014, six of the eight living jurors no longer oppose Burton receiving the same punishment.
Three jurors have explicitly called on Ivey to grant clemency. One juror, Priscilla Townsend, told the Associated Press that the death penalty should be reserved for “the worst of the worst.”
The victim’s daughter, Tori Battle, also expressed concern about Burton’s execution in an op-ed, according to All Alabama. Battle noted that Burton, now 75, “poses no threat,” citing his poor health and use of a wheelchair. She wrote that the system has dishonored Burton by seeking to take his life because “procedural rules have blocked courts from correcting past mistakes.”
At a press conference Thursday, the Execution Intervention Project unveiled a billboard in Talladega calling on Ivey to commute Burton’s sentence, according to WVTM-TV. The billboard stands in the same location where the group called for commutation of Anthony Boyd’s death sentence in October.
At the press conference, the Rev. Jeff Hood said “the location underscores the urgent link between the state’s actions, Burton’s trial, and Talladega County’s troubling death penalty history,” according to WVTM-TV. While the Execution Intervention Project has cited Talladega County’s extensive use of the death penalty, All Alabama reported that Schulz nonetheless views Burton’s case as “an extreme outlier.”
In her letter setting the execution date, Ivey wrote that she has no intention of granting clemency in Burton’s case, while still reserving the authority to do so.
Schulz said he remains hopeful that Ivey will commute Burton’s sentence, according to All Alabama. He pointed to past cases in which a less culpable person faced the death penalty while a more culpable individual did not, and where sentences were ultimately commuted.
He cited an action taken by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who commuted a death row sentence in November. PBS reported that Tremane Wood was sentenced to death for killing someone during a botched robbery in 2002. Wood’s attorneys argued that his brother, who received life without the possibility of parole, was responsible for the stabbing. Before dying in prison in 2019, Wood’s brother confessed to the crime, and shortly before Wood’s scheduled execution, Stitt commuted his sentence.
Despite opposition to Burton’s execution from jurors, the victim’s family and advocates, Burton is scheduled to be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia in the coming weeks. While precedents for commutation under similar circumstances exist in other states, whether Ivey will exercise that authority remains unclear.
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