Alabama Governor Commutes Charles Burton’s Death Sentence After Calls from Broad Coalition of Supporters

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.

In December 2025, attor­neys for Mr. Burton filed a for­mal appli­ca­tion for clemen­cy with Gov. Ivey, ask­ing her to reduce his sen­tence to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The peti­tion describes Mr. Burton’s case as ​“an extreme out­lier,” one involv­ing tri­al errors and a dis­pro­por­tion­ate sen­tenc­ing out­come that has for­mer jurors and the victim’s fam­i­ly mem­bers call­ing on Gov. Ivey to spare him. The sen­tenc­ing dis­par­i­ty at the heart of the peti­tion and Mr. Burton’s case has not gone unac­knowl­edged by Alabama offi­cials. In a peti­tion for cer­tio­rari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 in Mr. DeBruce’s case, the Alabama Attorney General’s office itself warned that the sit­u­a­tion, in which Mr. DeBruce’s sen­tence had been over­turned while Mr. Burton remained on death row, cre­at­ed what the state char­ac­ter­ized as ​“an unusu­al and arguably unjust” result. 

Alabama law allows a death sen­tence to be imposed on a non-trig­ger­man accom­plice if the State can prove beyond a rea­son­able doubt that the defen­dant was an accom­plice in the inten­tion­al killing, not just an accom­plice in the under­ly­ing felony. Mr. Burton’s coun­sel argues that the evi­dence pre­sent­ed at tri­al failed to estab­lish their client intend­ed for any­one to be killed and that con­fus­ing jury instruc­tions and a lead wit­ness who lat­er recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny result­ed in a con­vic­tion that ​“nev­er should have been a cap­i­tal case.” LaJuan McCants, a 16-year-old code­fen­dant who accept­ed a plea deal in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny against Mr. Burton, tes­ti­fied at tri­al that Mr. Burton had told him that if any­one need­ed to be hurt dur­ing the rob­bery, he (Mr. Burton) would han­dle it. Years lat­er, Mr. McCants signed an affi­davit clar­i­fy­ing his tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny, stat­ing he had not meant to imply Mr. Burton intend­ed vio­lence, that he had ​“nev­er seen [Mr. Burton] vio­lent,” and that Mr. DeBruce ​“made his own deci­sion to shoot Doug Battle.” Mr. McCants also stat­ed in his dec­la­ra­tion that at the time of his tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny, he was young, scared, and felt he need­ed to affirm pros­e­cu­tors’ sug­ges­tions to main­tain his plea agreement.

Mr. Burton’s attor­neys argue that while his case is an out­lier, it is not with­out prece­dent. When faced with near­ly iden­ti­cal cir­cum­stances, gov­er­nors in a hand­ful of oth­er states have exer­cised their exec­u­tive author­i­ty by com­mut­ing sen­tences they deemed dis­pro­por­tion­ate. Overall, since 1977, there have been at least 327 grants of cap­i­tal clemen­cy by gov­er­nors in 24 states. In February 2018, Texas Governor Greg Abbott com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Thomas Whitaker to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole based large­ly on the notion that he ​“did not actu­al­ly shoot the gun that caused the mur­ders” and the indi­vid­ual who did, was sen­tenced to life in prison. Notably, Mr. Burton’s attor­neys point out that Mr. Whitaker’s cul­pa­bil­i­ty was in some respects greater than their client’s — Mr. Whitaker active­ly planned the mur­ders — yet Gov. Abbott still grant­ed him clemen­cy. In 2007, then-Texas Governor Rick Perry, who over­saw more exe­cu­tions in his­to­ry than any oth­er gov­er­nor in the mod­ern death penal­ty era, issued a com­mu­ta­tion spar­ing Kenneth Foster from exe­cu­tion. Gov. Perry stat­ed that after con­sid­er­ing the facts, includ­ing that Mr. Foster did not pull the trig­ger, and the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, he believed com­mut­ing the death sen­tence was ​“the right and just decision.”

In 2017, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Ivan Teleguz ahead of his sched­uled exe­cu­tion for the same rea­son, not­ing the more cul­pa­ble defen­dant, who actu­al­ly com­mit­ted the killing, received a sen­tence of life with­out parole, rather than a death sen­tence. The same year, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson com­mut­ed the sen­tence of Jason McGehee, not­ing that ​“the dis­par­i­ty in sen­tence giv­en to Mr. McGehee com­pared to the sen­tences of his co-defen­dants was a fac­tor in my deci­sion.” And just weeks before Mr. Burton’s peti­tion was filed, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Tremane Wood in November 2025, after the Pardon and Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed that he do so. Mr. Wood’s broth­er had admit­ted to stab­bing the vic­tim in the same crime and in accept­ing the Board’s rec­om­men­da­tion, Gov. Stitt stat­ed that the com­mu­ta­tion ​“reflects the same pun­ish­ment his broth­er received” while ​“ensur[ing] a severe pun­ish­ment that keeps a vio­lent offend­er off the streets forever.” 

In each of these com­mu­ta­tions, the indi­vid­ual sched­uled for exe­cu­tion bore a more direct role in the killing than Mr. Burton did. Mr. Burton, by con­trast, did not direct Mr. DeBruce to shoot, did not wit­ness the shoot­ing, and, accord­ing to tes­ti­mo­ny pre­sent­ed by the State at tri­al, had already left the build­ing when Mr. DeBruce shot Mr. Battle.

Strikingly, six of the eight liv­ing jurors who con­vict­ed Mr. Burton and sen­tenced him to death in 1992 have expressed sup­port for com­mu­ta­tion. Three of these jurors have writ­ten let­ters direct­ly to Gov. Ivey request­ing she reduce his sen­tence, and stat­ing they would not have sen­tenced Mr. Burton to death had they known the trig­ger­man would not face the same sen­tence. Juror Priscilla Townsend explained to Gov. Ivey that hav­ing learned Mr. DeBruce died in prison after hav­ing his sen­tenced over­turned, ​“it didn’t sit right with me, that some­one who had not pulled the trig­ger was sen­tenced to be exe­cut­ed, and my heart went out to [Mr. Burton].” Another juror, who described the tri­al as ​“extreme­ly emo­tion­al­ly drain­ing” and on his mind for years, wrote that hav­ing since learned more about the crime and of Mr. DeBruce’s sen­tence reduc­tion, the orig­i­nal death sen­tence was ​“just no longer appro­pri­ate giv­en all the cir­cum­stances.” He asked Gov. Ivey as ​“the last per­son who can set this sit­u­a­tion right,” to com­mute Mr. Burton’s sentence. 

Most notably, the daugh­ter of Doug Battle—Tori Battle — has also called on Gov. Ivey to reduce Mr. Burton’s sen­tence. In a let­ter from November 2025, Ms. Battle wrote that she learned from the Alabama Attorney General’s office that the state intend­ed to exe­cute Charles Burton in her father’s name, some­thing she object­ed to. She described her father as a man who ​“val­ued peace” and ​“did not believe in revenge,” invok­ing his mem­o­ry in ask­ing the Governor to ​“con­sid­er extend­ing grace to Mr. Burton and grant­i­ng him clemency.”

Mr. Burton suf­fers from severe rheuma­toid arthri­tis that caus­es sig­nif­i­cant pain and requires the use of a wheel­chair. He has also been diag­nosed with delu­sion­al dis­or­der, clas­si­fied by the Alabama Department of Corrections as a ​“seri­ous men­tal ill­ness,” though the depart­ment cur­rent­ly con­sid­ers that con­di­tion in remis­sion. His attor­neys note that despite 33 years on death row, he remains a pos­i­tive pres­ence on the unit, is well regard­ed by prison staff and offi­cials, and is a strong source of guid­ance and sup­port for younger men both inside and out­side the prison. His son, Charles Lee Burton III, wrote to Gov. Ivey that his father had become ​“the voice of my con­science,” encour­ag­ing him to turn away from the path that had led to his own incar­cer­a­tion and to build a bet­ter life for his children.