MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has commuted the death sentence of Charles “Sonny” Burton, a 75-year-old man who spent more than three decades on death row for his role in a 1991 robbery that ended in the fatal shooting of a customer at an auto parts store in Talladega.
In a March 10 letter to Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm, Ivey formally exercised her clemency authority under the state constitution.
“Pursuant to the authority granted to the Governor of Alabama by the Alabama Constitution, I hereby commute the death sentence of Charles Lee Burton to life imprisonment without parole,” Ivey wrote in the official notice.
The letter cites provisions of Alabama law governing the governor’s clemency authority and clarifies that individuals whose death sentences are commuted by the governor are not eligible for parole.
“Prior to exercising this power, I notified a designated member of the family of the victim, Mr. Doug Battle. I also notified the Attorney General,” Ivey wrote.
The decision removes Burton from Alabama’s death row and replaces his sentence with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Burton had been scheduled to be executed by nitrogen suffocation on March 12, a method Alabama began using in recent executions. The commutation came after a wave of advocacy from legal organizations, civil rights groups, faith leaders and criminal justice reform advocates who argued that Burton’s case highlighted longstanding concerns about the felony murder doctrine and the uneven application of capital punishment.
Burton was one of six men involved in the 1991 robbery of an auto parts store in Talladega. During the robbery, customer Doug Battle was shot and killed. Court records and clemency filings indicate that Burton had left the store before the shooting occurred and was outside the building when the killing took place.
The man who shot Battle, Derrick DeBruce, was initially sentenced to death but later had his death sentence overturned. The state ultimately agreed to resentence him to life imprisonment without parole. Burton remained on death row even after the shooter’s sentence was reduced.
That disparity became the central focus of the clemency campaign surrounding the case.
Laura Porter, executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said advocates believed Burton’s situation illustrated a broader problem with capital punishment.
“We are grateful that Governor Ivey recognized that Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton should not be executed,” Porter said in a statement. “The death penalty process is deeply flawed when someone who was not present for the killing faces execution, while the person who committed the murder does not. It is uplifting to see that more and more governors across the ideological spectrum are recognizing problems with death penalty cases.”
Porter said advocates had urged the governor to consider the unequal outcome in the case, noting that the individual who fired the fatal shot was no longer facing execution.
“We’re very grateful that the governor heard the cries from the public and from people across the country that this particular case was inequitable when the person who had committed the murder was serving a life sentence and Sonny, who was not in the building at the time of the murder was facing execution,” Porter said in an interview with the Vanguard.
The governor’s intervention was notable in Alabama, a state that has carried out some of the highest numbers of executions in the country in recent decades.
“I was surprised only because in Alabama, once a case has been scheduled for execution during her tenure, they’d never been stopped,” Porter said.
During her time as governor, Ivey has overseen numerous executions and has rarely intervened in cases where an execution date had already been set.
Demetrius Minor, executive director of Conservatives Concerned, a group that questions the compatibility of capital punishment with conservative values, also praised the decision.
“We want to thank Governor Ivey for granting clemency for Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton. This brings tremendous relief to his family and so many across the country,” Minor said in a statement. “Conservatives know that government power can be abused and should not be used to execute someone who was not in the building when the murder was committed. Governor Ivey acted on these conservative principles.”
Civil rights organizations also welcomed the decision. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, said the commutation prevented what it described as a miscarriage of justice.
CAIR Alabama Staff Attorney Britton O’Shields said in a statement, “We thank Governor Ivey for sparing Mr. Burton’s life and preventing a grave injustice from being committed. Mr. Burton did not commit the crime for which he was sentenced to death while the man who did didn’t receive the death penalty. He changed his life and became a faith leader, a mentor and an example of redemption to other inmates. Taking his life would be unconscionable.”
Burton had been incarcerated for more than 30 years. Supporters said that during that time he had become a faith leader and mentor within the prison system, helping guide other incarcerated people.
His case also drew attention from some jurors who had originally voted to sentence him to death.
Priscilla Townsend, one of the jurors, told The Associated Press that Burton’s execution would have been unjust.
“It’s absolutely not fair. You don’t execute someone who did not pull the trigger,” Townsend said.
She added that she still believed in capital punishment in certain circumstances but did not believe Burton’s case met that standard.
Juror James Cottongim similarly wrote to the governor expressing concern about the fairness of the death sentence.
“[S]ince Mr. Burton was not the man who pulled the trigger, it just seems wrong that he should be put to death when the shooter was resentenced to life,” he wrote. “Our original sentence of death is just no longer appropriate given the circumstances.”
Advocates argued that Burton’s case exemplified the broader controversy surrounding felony murder laws, which allow individuals to be convicted of murder if a killing occurs during the commission of a felony, even if they did not personally carry out the act.
For critics of the death penalty, Burton’s case reflected what they see as the arbitrary nature of capital punishment.
Porter said that while some political rhetoric in recent years has suggested a renewed emphasis on harsh criminal penalties, broader public opinion trends appear to be moving in a different direction.
“I feel that 100%. I think that we have numbers of indications that we are in a tough on crime rhetoric moment right now, but that we are not significantly going backwards,” Porter said.
She pointed to data showing that new death sentences across the United States remain historically low even as executions continue to take place.
“I would argue that the current sentiment of Americans on the death penalty should be seen actually in the number of new death sentences instead of executions, which are a result of decisions made decades ago,” she said.
Porter added that many of the individuals sentenced to death in the United States share common vulnerabilities.
“As someone who wants to end capital punishment, I believe the people who are sentenced to death tend to have the most vulnerabilities,” she said. “People with intellectual disabilities, severe mental illness who’ve been exposed to trauma, either through war or severe, severe childhood trauma, it is our most vulnerable who end up being sentenced to death.”
For Burton and his family, the governor’s decision brings an end to decades of uncertainty about whether the state would carry out his execution.
Clemency advocates said the outcome reflected the efforts of a broad coalition of organizers, lawyers, faith leaders and community members who mobilized in recent weeks to bring attention to the case.
While the commutation does not free Burton, it ensures that he will spend the remainder of his life in prison rather than facing execution.
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