UPDATE: On March 10, 2026, two days ahead of his scheduled execution, Governor Kay Ivey granted clemency for Charles “Sonny” Burton, commuting his death sentence to a sentence of life without parole. In a statement, Gov. Ivey said, “I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr. Burton under such disparate circumstances. I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not.” In response to the Governor’s decision, Mr. Burton thanked her, stating, “She has proven to the people of Alabama, and the world, that she is a responsible Governor. And I thank her. Just saying thank you doesn’t seem like much. But it’s what I can give her. And I do thank her. Thank you, Governor.”
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.
