Faith leaders and advocates took part in last-minute pushes for the clemency of Alabama death row inmate Charles “Sonny” Burton on Monday.
Burton, whose execution is scheduled for Thursday, has been on death row for more than 30 years due to his connection to the 1991 shooting death of Doug Battle, who was killed by another man during an armed robbery at an AutoZone in Talladega that Burton took part in.
Derrick DeBruce, the man who committed the murder Burton faces execution for, shot Battle while Burton was waiting in a car outside the store. DeBruce was prosecuted for murder alongside Burton and was initially sentenced to death row; however, he was subsequently resentenced to life without parole. Of the six men charged in connection with the robbery, Burton is the only one facing execution.
A march from the Governor’s Mansion to the Alabama Capitol was held on Monday, during which faith leaders, including Rev. R.K. Smith of the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, appeared alongside community members and two of Burton’s legal team, and two of his children, Lois Harris and Carolyn Shavers, to deliver more than 60,000 petition signatures to Governor Kay Ivey calling for Burton’s clemency.
During the march, Smith led demonstrators in a prayer on the steps of the Alabama Capitol, calling on the governor to spare the 71-year-old inmate’s life.
“In this season of Lent, we would hope, pray and trust that the governor will be able to show her strength and courage similar to how Pontius Pilate had said, ‘I find no fault with this man,’” he said.
“Sonny Burton, we can find fault with. We know that he has not lived such a unique life—that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it’s amazing how God can take a bad situation and turn it into a good situation,” Smith continued. “And so, we pray that the governor will have a change of heart, we pray for the Burton family, we pray for the citizens of this city, we pray for the state as well as the country and the world itself.”
In an interview following the event, Elena Encarnacion, the investigator for Burton’s case with the Middle District of Alabama Federal Defenders Program, expressed gratitude to those who attended the event both in person and watched the event’s livestream, reporting that demonstrators came from “beyond the Montgomery area” to be a part of the march.
“We’re really happy with the turnout and, you know, it really speaks to how much Sonny, Sonny and his story, have moved people, who’ve never met him,” she said.
“It’s an incredible miscarriage of justice that the person who actually committed the murder gets a lesser sentence than Sonny,” Encarnacion continued. The state admitted in 2015 that Burton’s execution, in light of DeBruce’s sentence reduction, would be “unusual and arguably unjust.”
“This is what the pardon power is for—to correct things, you know, that sort of slipped through the cracks,” she added.
Encarnacion urged members of the public to contact their state and U.S. elected representatives, as well as the Alabama Governor’s Office at (334) 242-7100, to make their thoughts heard regarding his planned execution.
“More than 60,000 people agree that Gov. Ivey should use her authority to save Sonny Burton because executing him for a killing he did not do, while the real killer received a lesser punishment, is an affront to our notion of fairness and justice,” Burton’s attorney Matt Schulz said in a statement made ahead of the event.
On Monday evening, representatives of the Faith Leaders of Color Coalition and Julius Jones Institute met over Zoom alongside Burton’s family members and advocates for a national prayer call for clemency.
During the online event, Muslim and Christian faith leaders led attendees in prayers for Burton’s life.
Speakers included Smith, Burton’s spiritual advisor Imam Aswan Abdul-Addar of Masjid Baitul Haqq in Mobile, DeBorah Boneta, a chaplain with Oklahoma Muslim Prison Support and Rev. Brian Eakers of St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.
Abdul-Addar recounted a meeting he had with Burton last Friday, in which Burton urged his spiritual advisor and the advocates who “fought a good fight” for his life not to cry for him if he is executed.
“He said, for the second time, ‘I feel no anxiety. I feel no worry. I don’t know why, exactly,’ he said, ‘but I don’t,’” Abdul-Addar told attendees.
“As I explained to him, to be killed unjustly, you’ll be seen as a martyr before God. In Arabic, we say ‘shahid.’ You’ll be a witness before God against the people taking your life unjustly, and they’re gonna have to give an account to the one who’s the best accountant,” the imam continued. “I explained to him, I’ll do my best not to cry, but I can’t promise I won’t cry. I have a lot of respect and a lot of love for that brother. And for all the people who helped him, be they Muslim, Jew, or Christian, from the bottom of his heart and me, we thank you and may God’s mercy be on you all.”
Encarnacion presented attendees with a statement from Burton’s daughter, Shavers, transcribed earlier in the day, in which she urged advocates to continue fighting for Burton.
“The devil is not going to have my daddy’s life. He has been in that prison for 35 years, and because of that, I’ve never got an opportunity to know my father,” she said. “But no matter what, we will fight this till the very end.”
In a video released by the Alabama Post-Conviction Relief Project on Burton’s case last month, the inmate’s family, legal representation, pen pals and Battle’s daughter all spoke against the prisoner’s planned execution.
Tori Battle, who said that 30 years ago she believed Burton should be put to death for taking part in the robbery that killed her father, explained that her opinion of the prisoner changed when she learned more about the case and upon DeBruce’s resentencing.
“As I got older and learned more about the case and learned that he was in the car and that he was not the triggerman, and that wasn’t his intentions to do, my feelings toward him changed,” she said. “At his age, he should just finish out his life sentence alive, until he dies, you know, of natural causes.”
Battle wrote a letter to Ivey in December, published by the Montgomery Advertiser, calling on the governor to commute Burton’s death sentence and arguing that the planned execution would go against her father’s wishes.
“Every time I think about it, right, I hate myself. But over the years, I mean, I learned to accept what I had did. And I’m paying for it every day, you know, every day,” Burton said of the robbery that landed him on death row.
Advocates for Burton have scheduled a six-hour vigil at the Alabama State Capitol on March 12 from noon to 6:00 P.M., inviting the public to gather in solidarity with Burton during the final hours before his planned execution.
“That vigil will continue until either we get the results that we want, or Sonny is taken from us,” Encarnacion said.
