Montgomery, Alaa.. Charles “Sonny” Burton didn’t kill anyone. The state of Alabama could execute him anyway.
Burton, 75, faces execution for his role as an accomplice in a 1991 robbery of an auto parts store in which customer Doug Battle was killed. No one disputes that another man, Derek DeBrosse, shot and killed Battle. Burton, one of the six men involved in the robbery, was outside the store at the time of the shooting, according to testimony.
Both DeBrosse and Burton were sentenced to death. But DeBruce was later re-sentenced Life imprisonmentleaving Burton—who neither fired nor ordered anyone killed—as the only person facing execution.
Matt Schultz, Burton’s attorney, said the case “represents an extreme anomaly” among death penalty cases.
The Alabama Supreme Court in January allowed Gov. Kay Ivey to schedule Burton’s execution using nitrogen gas. The victim’s daughter and several jurors in his 1992 trial are now urging the governor to grant clemency, arguing that the case raises fundamental questions about justice.
“We hope and pray that Governor Ivey realizes that this case has fallen through the cracks,” Schulz said. “It would be wrong to execute a man who did not even witness the shooting, after the state agreed to re-sentence the shooter to life in prison without parole, and these are simply not the type of cases most people think of when they envision carrying out the death penalty.”
The shooting occurred on August 16, 1991, during a robbery at an AutoZone in Talladega.
Before they entered, Burton, then 40, said if anyone caused a problem in the store he would “take care of it,” according to testimony.
DeBros shouted for everyone to get down. Burton, also armed with a gun, forced the manager to sit in the back to open the safe.
As the robbery ended, Patel, a 34-year-old former Army soldier and father of four, entered the store. He threw his wallet down, got down on the floor, and exchanged words with Debrosse. LaJuan McCants, who was 16 at the time, testified that Burton and others left the store when DeBrosse shot Battle in the back.
Afterward, Burton asked DeBrosse in the getaway car why he shot the man, McCants testified.
During closing arguments, the prosecutor said Burton is “just as guilty as Derek DeBrosse, because he is there to help and assist him.” Prosecutors pointed to the statement on handling problems as evidence that Burton was the ringleader of the robbery.
But Burton’s attorneys said there was only evidence that Burton intended to participate in a robbery, not to hurt anyone.
The victim’s daughter was among those who called on the governor to grant pardon.
Tori Battle, who was 9 when her father was killed, asked Ivy to “consider offering Mr. Burton grace and leniency.”
“My father, Doug Battle, was many things. He was strong, but he valued peace. He did not believe in revenge,” she wrote in a letter to Ivey. The Associated Press was unable to reach her or other members of Patel’s family for comment.
Six of the eight living jurors in the 1992 trial did not object to a reduced sentence, according to the clemency request. Three of them ask for it, saying they would never have recommended a death sentence if the shooter would have received a lesser sentence.
“This is not fair at all. Someone who did not pull the trigger should not be executed,” Priscilla Townsend, one of the jurors, said in a phone interview.
Townsend said they recommended the death penalty after a very emotional trial. Townsend said she still believes in the death penalty for “the worst of the worst,” but said that’s not Burton.
Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office opposed the clemency request.
A spokesman for the office said: “Burton was convicted of capital murder in April 1992, and the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. This conviction and sentence were upheld at all levels.”
Most people on death row have been convicted of directly killing someone, but the US Supreme Court allows accomplices to be executed in certain circumstances. Robin M. said: Maher, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said that the Center documented at least 22 cases in which the executed person participated in a felony during which one of the victims died at the hands of another participant.
The US Supreme Court in 1987 allowed accomplices who did not pull the trigger to be sentenced to death if they showed “reckless indifference” to human life. Maher said this created “arbitrariness between jurisdictions.” Richard S. said: Jaffe, an attorney not involved in Burton’s case, said Alabama law requires prosecutors to show that the accomplice had a “special intent to kill.” Burton’s lawyers argued that intent was never proven.
Grants of clemency are rare in death row cases. Ivy did Pardon is granted once. However, Republican governors in several states have extended clemency to accomplices in murder cases. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt The death sentence was commuted In November.
Burton grew up with an alcoholic father who frequently beat him, according to sentencing documents. Despite this, he became a protector of the younger members of the family, said his sister, Edie Mae Ellison.
Ellison said her brother “is not perfect, but he is not the person prosecutors portrayed him to be.”
She said today that her brother is in deteriorating health. He is of weak build and uses a wheelchair or walker to move around outside his cell.
“He didn’t put his hand on the guy,” Ellison said. “Why do you feel it necessary to take his life?”