US EditionAlabama governor commutes death sentence of inmate whose accomplice fired fatal shot
Governor Ivey cited fairness concerns and the disparity in punishment as the reason for commuting Burton's sentence, marking her second clemency since 2017.
- On Tuesday, Gov. Kay Ivey, Governor of Alabama, commuted Charles L. Burton's death sentence to life without parole, halting his Thursday scheduled execution.
- The governor cited a sentencing disparity because evidence shows Charles L. Burton left before the shooting and Derrick DeBruce, the triggerman, received life imprisonment.
- The shooting occurred Aug. 16, 1991, during a robbery at an AutoZone in Talladega, where victim, a 34-year-old Army veteran and father of four, was killed; Burton was convicted of capital murder in April 1992 with a jury recommendation for the death penalty.
- Family members and jurors told the governor that Tori Battle, daughter of Doug Battle, urged clemency, six of the eight living jurors did not object, and Ivey notified the Attorney General of Alabama and John Hamm, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner.
- The U.S. Supreme Court 1987 ruling on accomplice liability allows death sentences under 'reckless indifference', while the Alabama Supreme Court authorization for nitrogen gas executions framed Ivey's decision, and the Death Penalty Information Center documented at least 22 similar cases.
108 Articles
108 Articles
In the United States, a 75-year-old man has been spared the death penalty.
March 10, 2026 – ATMORE, Alabama – Agencies. Just a few days after her scheduled execution, Alabama death row prisoner Charles “Sonny” Burton will spend the rest of his life in prison after Gov. Kay Ivey took the unusual measure of commuting her sentence on Tuesday, March 10. For Burton’s family, this has been a decades-long clemency struggle. For more than 30 years, the 75-year-old man remained on death row even though he did not pull the trigg…
A man who was to be executed for a murder he did not commit in the state of Alabama, in the south of the United States, was pardoned by Governor Kay Ivey. Charles “Sonny” Burton, 75, was sentenced to death for the murder of a man during a shoplifting in 1991, even though he was not on the premises at the time of the crime.While Burton and five other men stole the store that day, he had already left the place when one of the other robbers shot a …
What to know about the Alabama man granted clemency two days before his execution
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old man who was set to be executed this week even though he was not in the building when the victim was killed during a 1991 robbery
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