Felony Murder Elimination Project asks our supporters to take a moment today and tell Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to grant clemency for Charles “Sonny” Burton ahead of a scheduled March 12th execution date.
At age 75, Burton is facing execution for his role as an accomplice in a 1991 robbery at an auto parts store where customer Doug Battle was killed. No one disputes that another man, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed Battle. Burton, one of six men involved in the robbery, was outside the store at the time of the shooting, according to testimony.
DeBruce and Burton were both sentenced to death. But DeBruce was later resentenced to life imprisonment, leaving Burton, who neither fired the gun nor ordered anyone to be killed, as the only person facing execution.
Matt Schulz, Burton’s attorney, said the case “represents an extreme outlier” among death penalty 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.
The victim’s daughter is among those urging the governor to grant clemency. Tori Battle, who was 9 when her father was killed, asked Ivey to “consider extending grace to Mr. Burton and granting him clemency.”
“My father Doug Battle was many things. He was strong, but he valued peace. He did not believe in revenge,” she wrote in a letter to Ivey. The Associated Press was unable to reach her or other Battle family members for comment.
Six of the eight living jurors from the 1992 trial do not object to commutation, according to the clemency petition. Three are requesting it, saying they never would have recommended a death sentence if the shooter was getting a lesser sentence.
“It’s absolutely not fair. You don’t execute someone who did not pull the trigger,” Priscilla Townsend, one of the jurors, said in a telephone interview.
Take action TODAY and sign the clemency letter for Burton —>>> Act now to save Sonny Burton’s life
Read more about Sonny Burton and stay up to date on his fight for clemency —>>> About Mr. Charles “Sonny” Burton
