LAGOS MARCH 11TH (NEWSRANGERS)-A 75-year-old death row inmate has been spared from execution in a last-minute decision by the governor of Alabama. Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton was due to be killed by nitrogen gas on Thursday, but Kay Ivey ruled just two days beforehand that, because he did not pull the trigger in a murder case more than three decades ago, he could not be put to death in “good conscience”.
Burton has served 33 years on death row for the murder of Doug Battle, a father who was shot and killed in a 1991 robbery at an AutoZone store in Talladega. Burton did not pull the trigger, and five other suspects were involved, but anyone who participates in a robbery that ends in death can still be convicted of murder in the state of Alabama.
The person who pulled the trigger, Derrick DeBruce, was convicted of murder, but his death penalty sentence was reduced to life in prison without parole in 2014. He died in 2020.
Kay Ivey said: “I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr Burton under such disparate circumstances. I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not.”
Campaigners had rallied outside her mansion in recent days to have Burton taken off death row. Tori Battle, the daughter of his victim, had also opposed the execution. She wrote a letter in The Montgomery Advisor explaining why it should not go ahead.
It said: “Like any child faced with sudden, senseless violence, I asked a question that had no answer: Why did you have to kill him? More than three decades later, I am asking that question again. This time to the State of Alabama.”
She continued: “I am a victim’s family member. My voice should matter. My love for my father does not require another death, especially one that defies reason.”
Priscilla Townsend, who served on the jury during Burton’s sentencing, also questioned his execution.
“Mr. Burton was not inside the AutoZone at the time of the murder. He was not the shooter, and yet the state sought and secured a death sentence against him anyway,” she said, according to Death Penalty Information Center.
After it was confirmed that Burton had been saved from execution, an Instagram account dedicated to commuting his sentence thanked the Governor.
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“This decision ensures that the ultimate and irreversible punishment will not be carried out…. Today is a reminder that mercy remains an essential part of justice,” the page, ‘life4sonnyb’, said.
Burton has previously written a letter to the Battle family to apologise. He has also claimed he never thought the robbery would end in murder, and was “terribly horrified” when he learned it did.
Express
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