Key Takeaways
- Charles “Sonny” Burton’s death sentence stems from Alabama’s use of accomplice liability — despite him not entering the store.
- The actual shooter received life without parole, while Burton remains on death row.
- A clemency campaign has gained support from jurors and the victim’s daughter, urging Gov. Kay Ivey to act.
Advocates across the country are urgently calling on Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to halt the execution of Charles “Sonny” Burton, a 75-year-old Black man who has spent more than three decades on death row for a killing the state itself agrees he did not commit.
Burton, one of six men involved, is facing execution as an accomplice in a 1991 AutoZone robbery in Talladega, Alabama, where customer Doug Battle was fatally shot. According to a testimony cited by the Associated Press, Burton did not pull the trigger and was not inside the store at the time of the shooting. Still, Burton remains sentenced to death, while Derrick DeBruce, the man who fired the gun, had his death sentence reduced to life without parole and later died in prison.
That stark contrast is at the center of a growing clemency campaign, which now includes more than 13,400 signatures to date, urging Ivey to commute Burton’s sentence to life without parole.
A death sentence the state calls “arguably unjust”
According to court filings reported by AP, Alabama has acknowledged the imbalance in Burton’s punishment. In a 2015 filing, the state warned that allowing Burton to remain under a death sentence while the shooter’s sentence was reduced would create an outcome that is “arguably unjust.” Yet, Burton remains the only person condemned to die.
Matt Schulz, Burton’s attorney, said the case stands out even among capital punishment cases. “We hope and pray that Governor Ivey recognizes that this case slipped through the cracks. It would be wrong to execute a man who did not even see the shooting take place, after the state agreed to resentence the shooter to life without parole, and this is simply not the kind of case most people think of when they envision the death penalty being carried out,” Schulz said, according to AP.
In January, the Alabama Supreme Court authorized Ivey to set an execution date using nitrogen gas. According to ABC News, last week, she scheduled Burton’s execution for March 12. She stated she currently has no plans to grant clemency, though she retains the authority to do so at any point before the execution.
Jurors and the victim’s daughter oppose the execution of Charles “Sonny” Burton
Support for clemency has also come from unexpected voices. AP reported that six of the eight living jurors from Burton’s 1992 trial now support commuting his sentence. Three have formally requested clemency, saying they would not have voted for death had they known the shooter would ultimately receive a lesser sentence. “It’s absolutely not fair. You don’t execute someone who did not pull the trigger,” former juror Priscilla Townsend said.
Most notably, the victim’s daughter, Tori Battle, has publicly opposed Burton’s execution. In a December 2025 op-ed, she wrote, “Why is the state preparing to execute Charles Burton, a man who did not kill my father?” She added, “Executing a man who did not commit the killing does not heal wounds or strengthen public trust. It weakens it.”
Now wheelchair-bound and in declining health, Burton has exhausted all legal appeals. His fate rests solely with the governor. Advocates argue that executing a Black man who was not in the building, while sparing the shooter, represents a moral failure that demands correction.
As Burton’s supporters continue to rally, they insist clemency is not about rewriting history, but about preventing what many see as a clear miscarriage of justice.