Alabama governor spares death row inmate set for nitrogen gas execution | Alabama
Alabama’s governor commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old inmate scheduled to be executed this week, even though he was not in the building when the victim of the murder he was convicted of was killed.
Kay Ivey, the state’s Republican governor, this week reduced Charles “Sonny” Burton’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This decision marks the second time that the governor has granted clemency to a death row inmate since taking office in 2017.
Burton was sentenced to death for the 1991 shooting death of a customer, Doug Battle, during a store robbery. However, another man, Derrick DeBruce, shot Battle after Burton left the store.
DeBruce’s death sentence was reduced on appeal to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Ivey said in a statement that she could not fairly administer the death sentence to Burton when the man who actually killed Battle was allowed to live.
“I firmly believe that the death penalty is a just punishment for society’s most heinous offenders, as demonstrated by the 25 executions I presided over as governor. However, in order to ensure the continued viability of the death penalty, I also believe that the most consequential action of a government must be administered in a fair and proportionate manner,” she said.
Burton was scheduled to be executed by nitrogen gas Thursday evening. In recent months, Burton’s case has attracted national attention, and many advocates and criminal justice officials have expressed opposition to his execution. Last week, protesters gathered outside the governor’s mansion to urge Ivey to save Burton’s life.
The victim’s daughter, Tori Battle, even wrote an article in the Montgomery Adviser asking Ivey to commute Burton’s sentence.
In his article, Battle wrote that “my love for my father does not demand another death, especially one that defies reason. Mercy does not dishonor him. It honors the values he taught me.”
Alabama has carried out 83 executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
