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4h ago

Alabama Plans March 12 Execution of 75-Year-Old Non-Shooter Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton

The scheduled execution stems from a felony-murder conviction that treats a non-shooter as eligible for death.

People gather outside the Alabama Governor's Mansion in Montgomery, Ala., on Feb. 16, 2026, to urge Gov. Kay Ivey to grant clemency to Sonny Burton, who is scheduled to be executed on March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
Charles Burton poses with his family in a photograph provided by his attorneys.
Alabama's lethal injection chamber at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is pictured in this Oct. 7, 2002 file photo. Alabama put an inmate to death with nitrogen gas, the nation’s first execution by a new method since 1982. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
Charles Burton

Overview

  • State filings to the U.S. Supreme Court note Burton left the AutoZone before the 1991 shooting that killed customer Doug Battle, even as the attorney general calls the execution long overdue.
  • Officials plan to use nitrogen hypoxia for the execution, a method described in coverage as controversial.
  • The victim’s daughter, Tori Battle, has publicly urged Governor Kay Ivey to spare Burton, and several former jurors have submitted affidavits seeking clemency.
  • The gunman, Derrick DeBruce, was later resentenced to life without parole after a court found ineffective counsel and died in custody in 2020.
  • Burton, now 75 and reported to be wheelchair-bound with significant health issues, maintains he neither planned nor aided the killing.