Weeks Ahead of His Execution, Broad Coalition Calls on Alabama Governor to Commute Charles Burton’s Death Sentence

Charles ?“Sonny” Burton has spent more than three decades on Alabama’s death row for a mur­der, by the State’s own account, he did not com­mit. Mr. Burton was con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal mur­der and sen­tenced to death for his role in an August 1991 rob­bery that involved six men. He took mon­ey from the store’s safe and had left the store when Derrick DeBruce shot and killed Doug Battle dur­ing an alter­ca­tion. Mr. DeBruce, whom the state acknowl­edged as the shoot­er, was sen­tenced to death, but his sen­tence was sub­se­quent­ly over­turned, and the state agreed to resen­tence him to life without parole.

Mr. Burton was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death under Alabama’s felony mur­der statute, which holds par­tic­i­pants in cer­tain felonies liable for any death(s) that occur dur­ing the com­mis­sion of those crimes. Now 75 years old and described by Alabama’s own med­ical records as ?“frail,” Mr. Burton faces exe­cu­tion by nitro­gen suf­fo­ca­tion on March 12, 2026. Since Governor Kay Ivey sched­uled his exe­cu­tion date, Mr. Burton has received sup­port from an array of peo­ple, includ­ing reli­gious lead­ers and jour­nal­ists, in addi­tion to for­mer tri­al jurors and the victim’s daughter.

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