Alabama halts execution of man who didn’t kill victim

What happened

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old inmate scheduled for execution Wednesday night for a murder he did not commit or even witness. Charles “Sonny” Burton and five other men robbed an AutoZone in Talladega, Alabama, in 1991, but Burton had left the building before an accomplice, Derrick DeBruce, fatally shot a customer, Doug Battle. DeBruce’s death sentence was overturned on appeal and he died in prison in 2020.

Who said what

Ivey has presided over 25 executions and granted clemency to just one other inmate since taking office in 2017, and she said Tuesday that she strongly supports capital punishment “for society’s most heinous offenders.” But “I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not,” she said in a statement. Burton “will now receive the same punishment as the triggerman” and “rightfully spend the remainder of his life behind bars.”

Ivey had been “facing mounting pressure to intervene in the execution,” USA Today said. Battle’s family and “at least six of the eight living jurors who voted for Burton’s execution” were among those urging clemency. State Attorney General Steve Marshall said he was “very disappointed” with Ivey’s decision. “There has never been any doubt,” he said, that Burton has “Battle’s blood on his hands.”

What next?

Burton’s execution would have been Alabama’s eighth using nitrogen gas, a “method that has drawn controversy for its potential to cause pain and suffering during an execution,” The Washington Post said. “Thank you, governor,” Burton said in a statement issued through his attorneys. “Just saying thank you doesn’t seem like much. But it’s what I can give her.”