Alabama governor grants clemency to 75-year-old Sonny Burton, two days before he was set to be executed
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Burton was set to be executed on Thursday for his role in the 1991 death of a man during a robbery at AutoZone. However, Burton did not order the killing, nor did he pull the trigger, sparking a widespread debate.
An Alabama man who was set to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia on Thursday (Mar. 12) was granted clemency by Governor Kay Ivey.
Charles Lee “Sonny” Burton, 75, faced the death penalty after he was found guilty in the 1991 killing of Doug Battle at an AutoZone in Talledega. However, Burton did not gun down Battle, nor was he inside the AutoZone when the incident occurred. Still, the state was set to execute him, despite both the victim’s family and jurors on the case believing Burton should not be put to death.
With Ivey’s decision, Burton will now serve life without the possibility of parole.
“I firmly believe that the death penalty is just punishment for society’s most heinous offenders, as shown by the 25 executions I have presided over as governor,” Ivey said in a statement on Tuesday. “In order to ensure the continued viability of the death penalty, however, I also believe that a government’s most consequential action must be administered fairly and proportionately.
“Doug Battle was brutally murdered by Derrick DeBruce while shopping in an auto parts store. But DeBruce was ultimately sentenced to life without parole. 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. Yet Mr. Burton was set to be executed while DeBruce was allowed to live out his life in prison.”
Burton’s lawyers shared a statement from him thanking Ivey for her decision.
“She has proven to the people of Alabama, and the world, that she is a responsible Governor,” Burton said. “And I thank her. Just saying thank you doesn’t seem like much. But it’s what I can give her. And I do thank her.”
Burton was with five other men who robbed the AutoZone in 1991. DeBruce shot Battle, a customer, in the lower back and Battle died from his injuries. However, DeBruce won a federal appeal, commuting his sentence from death to life without parole. The other defendants in the case, aside from Burton, faced life sentences for the crime.
“I didn’t kill no one, true enough, but I made a mistake by being part of the crime,” Burton told CNN in an interview last week. “I made a mistake, and it seems like all my friends have forgave me. I hope that my friends will remember me and remember that I was a real friend, a good friend.”
“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,” Ivey said in a statement.
“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. He will now receive the same punishment as the triggerman.”
State Attorney General Steve Marshall slammed Ivey’s decision.
“I am deeply disappointed to learn that Governor Ivey has commuted the death sentence of Sonny Burton,” Marshall wrote in a news release.
He continued, “While the media has done its best to paint Mr. Burton as a harmless, decrepit old man, he is a murderer. 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.”
A petition for Burton’s clemency had received more than 60,000 signatures before it was delivered to Ivey’s office.
Alice Marie Johnson, the pardon czar for President Donald Trump, thanked Ivey for her decision on X (formerly Twitter), saying Ivey’s decision “showed what courageous and common sense leadership looks like.”
“Mercy saves lives,” she wrote.
Today, @GovernorKayIvey showed what courageous and common sense leadership looks like.
By commuting the death sentence of Charles “Sonny” Burton, she ensured that justice—not technicalities—guides the most serious decision a state can make.
The tragic death of Doug Battle 35…
— Alice Marie Johnson (@AliceMarieFree) March 10, 2026