Alabama governor stops 'unjust' execution of inmate set to die this week

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has commuted the death sentence of an inmate two days before his execution, saying it would be "unjust" to take his life when he wasn't the triggerman in a robbery gone bad.

The Republican governor commuted the death sentence of 75-year-old Charles Lee “Sonny” Burton to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Tuesday, March 10.

Burton had been set for execution on Thursday, March 12, for the death of Doug Battle, a customer killed during a robbery of an AutoZone in Talladega, Alabama, on Aug. 16, 1991.

Burton and five other men robbed the store and its customers that day. But only one of the robbers, a man named Derrick DeBruce, decided to shoot Battle. Burton had already left the building and had no idea Battle had been shot. While Burton got the death penalty, DeBruce ultimately was sentenced to life in prison.

"Charles Burton did not shoot the victim, did not direct the triggerman to shoot the victim and had already left the store by the time the shooting occurred," Ivey said in a statement to USA TODAY. "Yet Mr. Burton was set to be executed while DeBruce was allowed to live out his life in prison."

She continued: “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 a statement provided through his attorneys, Burton expressed his gratitude to Ivey.

“She has proven to the people of Alabama, and the world, that she is a responsible Governor," Burton said. "Just saying thank you doesn’t seem like much. But it’s what I can give her ... Thank you, Governor."

During her nearly nine years in office, Ivey has only ever stopped one other execution, that of Robin Dion "Rocky" Myers last year over questions about his guilt. She has presided over 25 executions, including seven that used a controversial new method of nitrogen gas.

Burton's commutation drew the ire of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who said in a statement that "Sonny Burton has Douglas Battle’s blood on his hands."

"While the media has done its best to paint Mr. Burton as a harmless, decrepit old man, he is a murderer," Marshall said. "He organized an armed robbery, held a gun to the store manager’s head, and callously doled out the proceeds of the robbery once Douglas Battle, an army veteran, was dead."

Here's what you need to know about the case and the commutation.

What was Sonny Burton convicted of?

On Aug. 16, 1991, Sonny Burton, Derrick DeBruce and four other men decided to rob an AutoZone in Talladega, Alabama.

Store manager Larry McCardle said that DeBruce pulled a gun and told everyone in the store to get on the floor. McCardle said that Burton pointed a gun at him and told him to take him to the safe. He complied.

Doug Battle, a 34-year-old married father, walked in during the robbery. One of the robbers told him to get on the floor but he "was having some difficulty" doing so, and an argument ensued between him and DeBruce, court records say. DeBruce eventually hit Battle, who fell to the ground, and shot him in the back as he was lying face-down.

Burton had already left the store when the shooting happened, an undisputed fact.

Like many other states, Alabama law allows a defendant who participated in a felony such as robbery to be convicted of murder, even if they didn't do any killing themselves. Burton was convicted under that law.

Gov. Kay Ivey was facing pressure to commute sentence

Ivey was facing mounting pressure to intervene in the execution.

The victim's own daughter, Tori Battle, wrote an op-ed condemning Burton's scheduled execution for her father's murder, writing that "justice is not about vengeance," but that it's about "truth, proportionality, and fairness,"

"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," she said in the op-ed published in December in the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network. "My love for my father does not require another death, especially one that defies reason."

When the Alabama Attorney General's Office reached out to Battle earlier this year about setting Burton's execution, she said she expressed her opposition.

"I was told I had no say," she wrote. "I am a victim’s family member. My voice should matter."

In addition to Battle's opposition, at least six of the eight living jurors who voted for Burton's execution said they now opposite it, especially given that the shooter got a life sentence, according to Burton's legal team.

And on Monday, March 9, supporters carrying signs that read "Save Sonny" gathered at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery to deliver a petition asking Ivey to grant clemency to Burton. The petition had more than 67,000 signatures.

"Putting a man to death who not only did not kill, but also did not encourage, participate in, nor even witness the shooting, and doing so after the shooter received a life sentence, indeed represents an injustice," Burton's attorneys said in a clemency petition to Ivey in the weeks leading up to the execution. "As the chief law enforcement officer of the State of Alabama, it is not only within your power, it is your duty to correct such injustices."

In granting Burton's commutation, Ivey reiterated that she is a firm believer in the death penalty but that "a government’s most consequential action must be administered fairly and proportionately."

“To be clear, Mr. Burton will not be eligible for parole and will rightfully spend the remainder of his life behind bars for his role in the robbery that led to the murder of Doug Battle," she said. “The murder of Doug Battle was a senseless and tragic crime, and this decision does not diminish the profound loss felt by the Battle family. I pray that they may find peace and closure."

Reaction to Gov. Ivey's commutation

Both times that Ivey has commuted an inmate's death sentence, the state's Attorney General has expressed strong disagreement.

In Burton's case, the Attorney General's Office had been arguing for the execution to proceed, saying in a U.S. Supreme Court filing that Burton was the "ringleader" of the six men who robbed the AutoZone that day in Talladega and dismissed his fight for a reprieve as delay tactics.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Marshall said he was "deeply disappointed" that Ivey stopped the execution.

"Burton was a career criminal before he became a murderer, and the jury rightfully held him responsible for the death that he caused," Marshall said. "I firmly believe that he should have faced the punishment imposed by a jury of his peers and upheld by numerous judges."

He said he didn't want the commutation to "cause Alabamians to lose faith in our justice system."

"For as long as I am Attorney General, I will not shy away from calling evil, evil and will do everything in my power to ensure that violence perpetrated against innocent Alabamians is punished mightily and without hesitation," he said.

Burton's legal team said in a statement that the commutation "is a reminder that mercy remains an essential part of justice."

"This decision ensures that the ultimate and irreversible punishment will not be carried out," they said. "The Governor’s action reflects careful consideration and affirms the principle that justice must always leave room for caution, humanity, and mercy."

Sonny Burton's execution was going to use nitrogen gas

Had Burton's execution proceeded, it would have been the eighth time that Alabama used nitrogen gas to put an inmate to death since January 2024, when the state became the first in the U.S. to use the method. During such executions, inmates breathe in pure nitrogen gas through a mask, eventually displacing all the oxygen in their body and suffocating them.

The U.N. Human Rights Office and the European Union have condemned the method, with federal Judge Shelly Dick saying in a ruling last year that witnesses nitrogen gas executions "describe suffering, including conscious terror for several minutes, shaking, gasping, and other evidence of distress."

Alabama Attorney General Marshall has defended the method as "both constitutional and effective."

"Nitrogen hypoxia as a means of execution is no longer an untested method – it is a proven one,“ Marshall said after the first such execution in January 2024. “To my colleagues across the country … Alabama has done it and now so can you. And we stand ready to assist you in implementing this method in your states.”

Louisiana began using the method in 2025.

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers cold case investigations, breaking news and the death penalty for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.