Man on death row for three decades granted clemency days before execution date

In 1992, Charles 'Sonny' Burton was sentenced to death for murdering a man during a store robbery the year prior.

This week, after awaiting his execution for over three decades, the 75-year-old was granted clemency.

Burton was 40 when he and six others entered an AutoZone store in Talladega, Alabama, with the intent of stealing the contents of an on-site safe.

Despite brandishing a gun, it was Burton's responsibility to make sure the customers inside the building stayed on the ground whilst his comrades attacked the store's manager, Larry McCardle.

One customer, however, Douglas Levester Battle, had knee problems and struggled to get down. This prompted one of the other robbers, 20-year-old Derrick Anthony DeBruce, to intervene, ordering Battle down with a gun.

Following an argument, DeBruce brutally beat Battle to the ground before fatally shooting him in the back.

DeBruce fatally shot Battle (Holman Correctional Facility)

Seconds prior to the bullet leaving DeBattle's gun, however, the five other criminals, including Burton, had already been fleeing the building.

Despite witnesses validating this, following the group's arrest, a jury deemed Burton the mastermind behind the plan and sentenced him to death alongside DeBruce. This fell in accordance with the state's law that a participant in an armed robbery would endure the same fate as any killers involved.

Shockingly, DeBruce's death sentence was later revoked following claims that his trial lawyers had provided inadequate counsel, and he was given life without parole. DeBruce died in prison whilst serving this sentence.

Despite this, Burton's sentence was withheld - even in the face of multiple appeals.

His execution via nitrogen hypoxia had been scheduled for 12 March 2026.

Two days prior, however, on 10 March, the governor of Alabama called it off.

Burton was 40 when he was arrested for his role in a fatal armed robbery (Alabama Department of Corrections)

Instead, Kay Ivey handed Burton a sentence of life without parole, declaring in a statement: "I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr Burton under such disparate circumstances."

He added: "I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not."

The decision came in the midst of an appeal to save Burton's life that had been led by Battle's own daughter, Tori, who was nine when her father died.

"No one from the State has ever sat with me to explain why Alabama believes it must execute a man who did not kill my father," she previously wrote in an article for the Montgomery Adviser.

"My love for my father does not require another death, especially one that defies reason."

Following this week's announcement, Burton told CNN he'd since issued a further apology to Tori and her family.

Burton was granted clemency this week (Federal Defenders for the Middle District of Alabama)

"I didn't kill no one, true enough, but I made a mistake by being part of the crime," he confessed.

Responding to the decision, Steve Marshall, Alabama's Attorney General, voiced his resentment.

"There has never been any doubt that Sonny Burton has Douglas Battle's blood on his hands," he hit back. "Burton does not deserve special treatment because he is old. He could have been executed a long time ago, but like many death-row inmates, he chose to drag out his case through endless frivolous appeals."

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