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An Alabama man who was outside the building when a man was killed in an armed robbery is looking at life as “a gift from God” after being granted clemency by the state’s governor just days before he was set to be executed.
Charles “Sonny” Burton, 75, was sentenced to death for his role in the robbery of a Talladega AutoZone store that left a man dead in 1991.
While Burton left the store before Derrick DeBruce gunned down customer Doug Battle, he was tried and convicted as an accomplice, with prosecutors insisting Burton acted as the group’s leader in the armed robbery.
An Alabama jury convicted DeBruce and Burton of capital murder, with DeBruce ultimately seeing his death penalty sentence overturned on appeal.
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Charles “Sonny” Burton smiles while behind bars in an undated photograph. (Provided by Federal Defenders Office)
While DeBruce was resentenced to life in prison and later died behind bars, Burton’s death sentence was upheld – until two days before he was set to be executed by nitrogen gas.
“I’m feeling like a newborn baby, you know?” Burton told Digital on Thursday, the day he was set to die. “I have dodged death and I feel okay.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey commuted Burton’s death sentence earlier this week, instead determining the grandfather, who uses a wheelchair, would spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Charles “Sonny” Burton smiles for a photograph. (Provided by Federal Defenders Office)
The move marked just the second time Ivey had chosen to grant clemency to a death row inmate since she was elected in 2017.
“My being released from death row – it’s all God’s doing,” Burton said in a phone call from behind bars. “I asked him to soften the governor and to grant the governor to do the right thing. And she did, just like I asked her.”
Ivey, a Republican who has presided over 25 executions, said she believes in the death penalty as “just punishment for society’s most heinous offenders,” but “cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr. Burton under such disparate circumstances.”
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Charles “Sonny” Burton poses alongside family members in an undated photograph. (Provided by Federal Defenders Office)
“I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not,” Ivey said in a statement. “To be clear, Mr. Burton will not be eligible for parole and will rightfully spend the remainder of his life behind bars for his role in the robbery that led to the murder of Doug Battle. He will now receive the same punishment as the triggerman.”
The move comes after Burton’s supporters urged Ivey to spare him, and several jurors from his 1992 trial said they believed clemency was warranted.
Battle’s daughter also previously sent a letter to Ivey asking for Burton’s clemency in a stunning act of forgiveness.
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Charles “Sonny” Burton fist bumps attorney Matt Schulz in an undated photograph. (Provided by Federal Defenders Office)
“The jurors, so many of them, were willing to sign affidavits or write letters to the governor,” Matt Schulz, an assistant federal defender who represents Burton, told Digital. “Three of them specifically asked the governor to commute the sentence, stating that they never would have voted for death in the first place had they known the shooter would not face the same fate.”
Schulz described the emotional moment he was able to deliver the news to Burton in person.
“I had gone through all the security [at the prison], I was there with my shoes and my belt still in my hand as I walked in to tell him,” Schulz said. “I was able to just say to him, ‘Sonny, you are no longer under a sentence of death. Gov. Ivey has commuted your sentence to life without parole.’”
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“And [Burton] just said, ‘Oh, I can’t believe it, big guy,’” Schulz told Digital, adding, “And, so I just reached down and gave him a big hug.”
Burton echoed the sentiment, expressing his relief in his life being spared while vowing to dedicate his life to doing “the right thing.”
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“I’m living now, and I’m living in a good way,” Burton said.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall ultimately denounced the governor’s decision, stating Burton “held a gun to the store manager’s head” before dividing up the money stolen in the robbery.
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“There has never been any doubt that Sonny Burton has Douglas Battle’s blood on his hands,” Marshall said, according to The Associated Press.
Marshall did not immediately respond to Digital’s request for comment.
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Alice Marie Johnson, who serves as the Trump administration’s “pardon czar,” praised Ivey’s decision in a statement, adding the decision “showed what courageous and common sense leadership looks like.”
“By commuting the death sentence of Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton, she ensured that justice — not technicalities — guides the most serious decision a state can make,” Johnson wrote in a social media post.
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As Burton looks to wrap his head around his second chance at life, he remains thankful for Ivey and his supporters.
“I want to thank everybody,” Burton said. “I want to thank the government especially for saving our lives, giving them some change. And even though I might not be a free man, but I’m in a place that I’m needed at this moment.”
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As Burton begins to look ahead toward his second chance at life, his new plans include enjoying some ice cream on the evening of what would have been his execution.
“Today is the day that I’m supposed to die, the day I’m going to be executed,” Burton told Digital. “Thank God, smash it out of the devil’s hands.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
