Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of a man who spent three decades on death row for a killing he did not commit, two days before he was scheduled to die.
Ivey revised the punishment for Charles “Sonny” Burton, 75, to life without parole.
Burton was convicted of capital murder for the 1991 shooting of Doug Battle during the robbery of an AutoZone store in Talladega, Alabama. Burton participated in the robbery but had left the building when an accomplice, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed Battle inside, a witness testified at trial. DeBruce’s death sentence was eventually changed to life in prison.
Ivey said in a statement that while she believes “the death penalty is just punishment for society’s most heinous offenders,” she also believes “it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not.”
Burton, in a statement shared by his attorney, Matt Schulz, said thanking the governor “doesn’t seem like much.”
“But it’s what I can give her,” Burton added. “And I do thank her.”
Schulz told The Washington Post that though the attorney remained hopeful, Burton’s fate had seemed “almost hopeless” as his scheduled execution loomed. Burton’s family made funeral arrangements, he said, and Schulz helped write Burton’s will as he continued to press for Ivey to spare him.
Ivey’s announcement came Tuesday morning as Schulz was visiting Burton in prison.
“I just gave him a big hug when I delivered the news,” Schulz said.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) criticized the decision.
“Longstanding Alabama law recognizes accomplice liability, as has every judge that has touched this case over three decades,” Marshall said in a statement. “There has never been any doubt that Sonny Burton has Douglas Battle’s blood on his hands.”
A jury had convicted Burton — and recommended the death penalty — because he had participated in the robbery in which DeBruce killed Battle. DeBruce’s sentence was overturned in 2014 after a court agreed that he had received inadequate counsel. He died in prison in 2020, according to the Alabama Reflector.
Burton maintained that he did not intend for the robbery to lead to a killing and sent a letter to Battle’s family expressing remorse for his death. Supporters, including jurors who convicted him and Battle’s family, protested the fact that he remained on death row after years of failed appeals.
“No one from the State has ever sat with me to explain why Alabama believes it must execute a man who did not kill my father,” Tori Battle, Battle’s daughter, wrote in a December op-ed in the Montgomery Advertiser and other Alabama news outlets.
A December clemency petition for Burton said six of the eight living jurors who recommended he be put to death did not oppose the commutation of his sentence, and three specifically requested it. The petition added that Burton is frail, pain-stricken and used a wheelchair due to arthritis.
Jurors for Burton wrote in letters to Ivey that the downgrading of DeBruce’s punishment had led them to reconsider their recommendation for his sentence.
“If I had known at the time of the trial, that the man who pulled the trigger would not be facing a death sentence, I would not have thought it was fair to give Mr. Burton, who was not even in the building when Mr. Battle was shot, a harsher sentence,” wrote Priscilla Townsend, who served on Burton’s jury.
Burton was scheduled to be executed using nitrogen gas — a method that has drawn controversy for its potential to cause pain and suffering during an execution — before Ivey intervened.
Ivey has presided over 25 executions, she said in her statement, and previously commuted one other death sentence. In 2025, the governor granted clemency to Robin “Rocky” Myers, who was convicted of murder, after expressing doubts about the evidence against him.
Schulz, Burton’s attorney, said Burton’s situation was a “classic case for clemency” to remedy a disproportionate punishment.
“By issuing this commutation today, Governor Ivey increased public confidence in the system,” he said.
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