Charles 'Sonny' Burton, a 75-year-old man on death row in Alabama for a 1992 murder he did not personally commit, has had his sentence commuted to life without parole just two days before his scheduled execution by nitrogen gas. Governor Kay Ivey, a staunch supporter of capital punishment who has overseen more than 25 executions, made the decision on 10 March after an unusual coalition of faith leaders, jurors, the victim's daughter, a former death row sergeant, Republican politicians, and tens of thousands of ordinary citizens argued that executing Burton while the actual shooter died in prison with a life sentence was unjust.
Burton was sentenced to death for the killing of Doug Battle during a robbery at a Talladega AutoZone. Derrick DeBruce, who fired the weapon, had his sentence reduced to life without parole in 2014 after a federal appeal. Of the six people involved in the robbery, Burton was the only one facing execution. His attorney, Matt Schulz, argued that even death penalty supporters should demand consistent application of the punishment, a point echoed in Governor Ivey's commutation letter.
In her statement, Ivey wrote: 'I firmly believe that the death penalty is just punishment for society's most heinous offenders... 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.' The governor's communications director, Gina Maiola, pointed to this statement when asked whether the public campaign influenced the decision.
Demetrius Minor, executive director of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, highlighted the bipartisan nature of the effort, noting that conservatives' general skepticism of government made them receptive to arguments about the death penalty's fallibility. Schulz, who took Burton's case to conservative talk radio, said: 'Even by the state's own version of events, I have a client who did not kill anyone, did not even see the shooting take place.' Imam Aswan Abdul-Addarr, a spiritual adviser to Burton, said the campaign succeeded because it transcended politics, adding: 'Most of humanity hates injustice.'
