Advocates are calling for the state of Alabama to have mercy on a 75-year-old Black man, who is set to be executed this week. Charles “Sonny” Burton is now wheelchair bound and wears a padded helmet to protect him for frequent falls. But while his family argues he no longer poses a threat to anyone, one tragic night in 1991 is still haunting him.
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Sonny was one of six men who robbed a Talladega AutoZone on Aug. 16, 1991, according to court documents. At some point during the heist, Sonny– armed with a gun– stole cash from a safe in the back room before leaving out of the store. Then, shots rang out.
Back inside, a friend of Sonny, Derrick DeBruce had shot a 34-year-old customer in the back. Doug Battle died from the gunshot wounds, and his death sealed the fate of both DeBruce and Sonny, according to state Attorney General Steve Marshall.
“I didn’t know a murder was going to happen,” Sonny told NBC News. “I would have stopped that.” Still, his ignorance to the murder did nothing to move the Alabama courts. When someone is killed during an active felony, state law allows all suspects to be charged with felony murder, which in Sonny’s case resulted in a death sentence.
During his 1992 trial, details about Sonny’s abusive upbringing came to light. “His stepfather recounted witnessing Sonny being brutally beaten for something as simple as calling his stepdad ‘Dad,’” a website for Sonny read. Prosecutors, on the other hand, argued Sonny was the ringleader of the robbery-turned-murder.
The actual shooter also received a death sentence before his sentence was overturned, and the state agreed to resentence him to life without parole in 2002, according to state records. Still, Sonny has sat on death row as his scheduled execution date on Thursday (March 12) creeps slowly.
“I shouldn’t die for something I haven’t done,” Sonny continued to NBC News. “I didn’t assist nobody. I didn’t aid nobody. I didn’t tell nobody to shoot nobody.” DeBruce and Sonny lived together briefly on death row until his conviction was overturned. DeBruce died in custody in 2020.
Over the years, several people connected to the case have spoken on Sonny’s behalf. Namely, the victim’s daughter, who was only nine when her father was killed, published an op-ed in the Montgomery Advertiser addressed to state officials.
“As a child, I believed justice meant punishment. I hated all six men involved and thought that witnessing executions would bring closure,” Tori Battle said of her dad’s death. “As I have grown older, I have come to understand that justice is not about vengeance. It is about truth, proportionality, and fairness.”
She continued urging Gov. Kay Ivey to save Sonny’s life. “Mr. Burton remains on death row not because moral clarity demands it, but because procedural rules have blocked courts from correcting past mistakes,” she added. “When a man’s life turns on technical barriers rather than the truth, that is not justice, but a failure of the system that does nothing to honor my father’s memory.”
Several ex-jurors, including Priscilla Townsend, also came forward expressing regret for their decision. “I don’t see him as a bad guy anymore. I was young, and I made a poor decision, as he did in his youth. He made poor choices. I don’t feel he should be sentenced to death for a poor choice,” Townsend told NBC News.
Meanwhile, AG Marshall called Sonny’s execution “long overdue.” Gov. Ivey has only commuted one death sentence in her nine years in office. Alabama plans to execute Sonny using nitrogen hypoxia, a controversial execution that has not been used.
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