At 75 years old, Charles “Sonny” Burton has about a month left to live.
His death won’t come from the arthritis that now wracks his frail body, or his fading mind riddled by the damage from numerous tumbles.
Instead, this man—who has never taken a life himself—will die as his airways are flooded with nitrogen hypoxia administered to him via mask by the state of Alabama.
Burton has spent the last three decades on death row within Alabama’s prison system, the only person involved in a 1991 armed robbery-turned-murder to face the death penalty.
Prosecutors alleged, and Bruton has not denied, that he helped to orchestrate the armed robbery at a Talladega Auto Zone in 1991 that took the life of Doug Battle. Burton admits his recklessness in carrying out the robbery led to Battle’s death. He was not inside the store when the shots were fired, and there’s no indication he had any intent for anyone to die.
He’s not looking for a pardon; he is merely asking the state not to kill him.
The shooter, Derrick DeBruce, had his life sentence reduced to life without parole and later died in prison.
“The Attorney General’s Office, itself, while appealing the shooter’s case, admitted that to execute Mr. Burton, after resentencing the shooter to life without parole, would be ‘arguably unjust,'” said Matt Schulz, federal defender for the Middle District of Alabama. “Reasonable people who both oppose, and those who support, the death penalty should be able to agree that, if the State itself has admitted its own hesitance about the justness of an execution, that execution should not go forward.”
With that in mind, six of the eight jurors who originally voted to sentence Burton to the death penalty now support the commutation of Burton’s sentence. So does Battle’s daughter, who urged Gov. Kay Ivey not to carry out the execution as it will not bring the family healing or justice.
Burton does not have much longer for this world, and his execution will not create a significant reduction in taxpayer burden.
So the question before us now is: Who are we killing Sonny Burton for?
