March 11, 2026 • 18 mins
In a surprising and rare move, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of a man who was scheduled to die by nitrogen gas on Thursday. 75 year old Charles “Sonny” Burton was convicted of the 1991 murder of Doug Battle because he was a part of a robbery where one of his cohorts shot and killed Battle. While the man who pulled the trigger got life in prison, Burton wound up on death row.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey, folks, it is Wednesday, March eleventh, and an execution
scheduled for tomorrow night has been called off for a
man who has been on death row for thirty five years,
convicted of murder, but everybody agrees he didn't actually kill anybody.
And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Roabe,
(00:33):
who should start with just how rare this is a
lot of executions get scheduled. It is rare for we
have a governor to step in and commute a sentence,
and this governor is in a state not necessarily known
for commutations.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That is all very true, but this case was exceptional
because you mentioned, Yes, Charles Sunnyburton, by all accounts, never
killed anyone. But let's take that even a step further.
He never directed anyone to kill someone. He wasn't even
in this same room where someone was murdered, and the
(01:10):
person who pulled the trigger isn't on death row. All
of that is just kind of head scratching, and it
all rose to a fever pitch this week.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
And yes, so what we're talking about here, folks. The
state I was talking about is Alabama. Alabama is known
for if you will executions, they often do lead or
up there in the top list every year of the
number of executions that they do pull off. And Alabama,
in fact, just a couple of years ago, led Texas
in the number of executions they have in one year.
Just to give you an idea, the governor there has
(01:43):
only done this twice in her history. This came after
a significant amount of pressure. Again, Robes the case we're
talking about here. Charles Burton is the guy's name, But
this is one of those cases where someone ends up
charged and convicted of murder that didn't actually kill anybody,
but they were a part of a crime that led
(02:07):
to a murder and Robes. That is the type of
law that sometimes is under scrutiny, but it's on the
books in a lot of places, and this is at
the heart of this case.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yes, it's called felony murder, meaning if you were a
part of a crime where a murder happened, it doesn't
matter if you pulled the trigger, it doesn't matter where
you were. If you were a part of a burglary,
a felony so to speak, and someone is murdered, you
are just as culpable according to this law as the
person who actually killed the other person. And this is
(02:36):
on the books. We just checked in forty six states
in this country. Four states have abolished it. Interestingly it
is they are Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Hawaii. Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky,
and Hawaii. Every other state in this country has these
laws on the books.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And this is what happened to Charles Burton back in
nineteen ninety one. Look at everybody it acknologists and admits
he was a part of a robbery at an auto zone.
Six guys going to rob this place. He is one
of the six. He runs in the part of the
robbery and runs out after robbing the place. His guys,
his boys are all you know, making their way out
(03:14):
of the store, if you will, robbery in progress. After
he leaves the store and is making his escape, one
of his accomplices shoots and kills a customer. He is
literally the guy on death row for thirty five years,
has was literally not even in the building when the
murder took place. The guy who actually did the murder
(03:36):
ends up getting the death penalty. I have it right.
He died in prison roads But did they not? They
took the death penalty back before he even died.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Right, his sentence was commuted to life in prison before
he died. Yes, so he was taken off death row.
And turns out Burton was the only member of that
six person team who went in to rob that store
who actually ended up on death row.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So let's do for the Claire already there, folks, we
are talking about a crime in which someone was shot
and killed. The guy who shot and killed the guy,
his sentence was reduced to life in prison. So why
is it the guy who did not pull the trigger?
Why would his sentence need to be death? That is
(04:19):
the basic breakdown of even if you're for the death
penalty robes, that doesn't make sense, correct.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And so, as you mentioned, there was mounting pressure from
the community there in Alabama, and not just from people
who know Sonny Burton, who loves Sonny Burton. No, it
wasn't just family and friends. This came from the victim's
own daughter. She wrote an op ed which we will
get into. It was very powerful at the end of
last year, begging, literally begging the governor to not kill
(04:51):
Charles Sonny Burton. She said it would not honor her
father's memory. And so with all of that pressure and
the clock ticking again. Burton's execution was scheduled for Thursday, yesterday,
and this was surprising, just even that it was so early,
the timing of it. Usually Governor's wait until the eleventh
hour to the last moment. Governor k Ivy decided to
(05:14):
come out on Tuesday and commute his sentence.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Well, she knew her answer already. Why wait and why
make him wait? That's me. I don't know if that
played into it, but from a human standpoint, that was
a little bit of humanity. I would say. She offered
him his family and his supporters.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And she actually released his statement and it was it
was very telling, and I thought it was very well said,
and it was certainly appreciated by Sunny Burton. But this
is what the governor announced yesterday. Doug Battle, that's the
victim in this case. Doug Battle was brutally murdered by
Derreck de Bruce while shopping in an auto parts store,
but de Bruce was ultimately sentenced to life without parole.
(05:52):
Charles Burton did not shoot the victim, did not direct
the triggerman to shoot the victim, and had already left
the store by the time time the shooting occurred, yet
mister Burton was said to be executed while de Bruce
was allowed to live out his life in prison. I
cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of mister
Burton under such disparate circumstances. I believe it would be
(06:15):
unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed
while the participant who pulled the trigger was not.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
That's simple. I mean, this is almost common sensical, and
I mean it just is. I don't necessarily hear that
much of a drum beat. We have the DA who
didn't agree with it. We'll hear those comments. But brother,
I mean, generally speaking, don't most level headed, decent folks
think that's what should happen.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I can't imagine that somebody, well other than the DA,
which yes, we will get into, would think otherwise. And
to that point, there was a petition on Monday that
folks delivered to the governor with more than sixty thousand
signatures from the state of Alabama asking for her to
commute his sentence, and they actually even had a demonstration.
They walked from the Governor's mansion to the state capital
(07:06):
about a mile and a half to try and just
create these images of solidarity to put the pressure on
the governor to do the right thing. And so she did,
and I actually really loved we got to hear directly
from Sunny Burton via his attorney, his reaction to the
governor's commutation. He said this to Governor and about Governor Ivy,
(07:27):
she has proven to the people of Alabama and the
world that she is a responsible governor. And I thank her.
Just saying thank you doesn't seem like much, but it's
what I can give her, and I do thank her.
Thank you. Governor.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Well, there is value still, right, And somebody's like, what
is he seventy five?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Seventy five?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
All right? So doing that math, he was around forty
or so when the crime took place. I mean, there
are people around him. They are family members, and someone
even in that jail, maybe that he's having an impression
his life is worth something to somebody. And I know
(08:07):
he's being punished for his crime. And it's one of
these weird stories. We cover a lot of these death
totally stories, and some of them have excuse me, robes.
It seems like almost the majority of have some kinds
of extenuating circumstance that makes you when you take it
all into context, it's not just guilt or innocence, death
(08:28):
or life. There's so much. Just like this case, Babe,
if you convicted murderer for a robbery that resulted in
a death, he sounds like the worst dude ever. But
in that group, sweetheart, he didn't go in there trying
to kill somebody.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
No, and he's I mean, there are lots of folks
who are around that time who said he actually was like,
no one gets hurt, no one gets hurt. He was
not a violent person. So yes, when we cover these cases,
a lot of times we're not oftentimes talking about these
premeditated evil and yes, that is sometimes what we see
in death row cases, but a lot of times it
(09:05):
is these stupid mistakes that people make when they're committing
another crime. Someone dies, not that you shouldn't have to
pay for it, but you start to actually examine what
happened leading up to the murders, and oftentimes it's not
what you would imagine in a death penalty case.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
It's what the law says is allowed. But is that
what it should be? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
It was interesting to hear from the DA, because you
heard the governor's words, you heard directly from sunny Burton,
and you will hear from the victim's daughter here. But
the DA was perhaps the one person who just he
dug in.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
He We always see this they sometimes when evidence is
presented of someone's innocence, the DA will still stand by
and the police will still stand by because they don't
want their work being questioned. And this is just this
is all this is.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, So this is what the DA had to say
following the Governor's decision. There has never been any doubt
that sunny Burton has Douglas Battles blood on his hands.
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
(10:22):
his case through endless, frivolous appeals. I firmly believe that
he should have faced the punishment imposed by a jury
of his peers and upheld by numerous judges. Damn, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
All that cases it's been upheld, all that stuff, does
it is true? But wow, we applied a little decency
into our justice system. I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, And I think he was implying that somehow the
reason why Burton was being or his death sentence was
being commuted to life in prison was because he is old.
That's not the case at all at all, and so he,
I think was conflating. He was trying to act as
if that was the reason why the governor made her decision,
and clearly it was not.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, he's getting special treatment.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Okay, all right, when we come back, this will leave
you with, I think, just some hope and some recognition
that there is beauty and decency in this world. We're
going to read you some of the most powerful excerpts
from the op ed that Doug Battle's daughter wrote to
the governor. Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy
(11:39):
and TJ, where we are talking about a really remarkable
situation that happened in the state of Alabama. You don't
see this every day, but Charles Sunny Burton on death
row his sentence was commuted by Governor k Ivy after
taking a look at the situation. There had been a drumbeat,
a groundswell of support for Burton because when you look
(12:00):
the facts of the case, this was someone was murdered
in the commission of a burglary that he was a
part of. He was not the person who pulled the trigger.
In fact, he wasn't even in the building when his
cohort shot Doug Battle in the back of customer who
was lying on the ground in the middle of this robbery.
And the man who pulled the trigger got a life sentence.
(12:22):
His death sentence was commuted to life in prison. In fact,
no one was executed for the murder except for Burton,
who was scheduled to die by nitrogen gas tomorrow. The
governor stepped in and made a decision to commute his
sentence to life in prison. This all came after an
op ed from Doug Battle's daughter. She wrote this at
(12:45):
the end of last year. Actually, and it's a powerful letter.
We've seen letters like this be written, and they're not
always considered. We've certainly seen that in other cases.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
And don't know for sure if the governor read it
or considered it, but it probably made.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Its way, yes, and her title was powerful just from
the start. My father was murdered, Alabama is about to
execute the wrong man. She goes on to say, today,
mister Burden is seventy five years old, wheelchair bound, and
in poor health, suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis. He is
(13:23):
frail and poses no threat, yet Alabama plans to execute
him using nitrogen hypoxia, an untested execution method that would
cause him to suffocate while conscious. It's interesting. She goes
on to say when she was a child, she was nine,
by the way, when her father was murdered, she wanted
to see these men die, but that changed as she
got older.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
And Yeah, if justice had been I guess rendered immediately,
we never would have had thirty five years of people
to grow up, to come around, to understand the case
a little differently, understand the law a little differently, and
maybe just to soften their hearts. I don't know. Is
the time good for justice or bad for justice? Depends
on which side.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That's a really, really good point. It's so interesting how
what you think about something or how you feel about
a situation can drastically change over time. And we have
seen this, we have talked about this, and she expresses
this in this letter. How frustrated she was because she
said she was told by the Attorney General's office that
she had no say, no say in what happened. And
(14:26):
we've seen that with victim's families not having any say
in the punishment.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I don't know if she did this time at all,
but I will continue to be an advocate for that
law when the death penalty is on the table. When
the death penalty is imposed, I guess by a jury,
I think yes. The family of the victim should be
the one to ultimately say no. I shouldn't be able
to say yes, I want somebody killed, but you should
be able to say no. And this is one of
(14:53):
those these folks should be listened to.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yes like almost in a sense, giving the victim's family
veto power to a death sentence. She said, I am
a victim's family member. My voice should matter. Her final
paragraph was the one that I hope will leave everybody
with a yes, a hopeful feeling. My love for my
father does not require another death, especially one that defies reason.
(15:17):
Mercy does not dishonor him. It honors the values he
taught me. I ask Governor k Ivy to review this
case and commute Charles Burton's sentence. If she cannot, I
ask her to do something this state has never done.
Explain honestly and directly why Alabama believes this execution is necessary.
I have been waiting for answers since I was nine
(15:39):
years old, and just writing that ap ed in the
paper reached Burton and he reacted to it, saying, she
forgave me. And I want to say how much I
appreciated that she lifts a whole lot of guilt off
of me. It has been remarkable to see victims families
offer grace.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, because they need peace, and that's usually what comes
out of it. What does it serve? Whose memory? Does
it serve to kill somebody else? Ever, and again, people
think justice, and I know there are death penalty advocates
out there, but she the most important word there. And
when we don't hear a live man is mercy. Why
do we not get out of our heads that mercy
(16:21):
can be a sign of strength for whatever reason, if
you show mercy, you're a weakling. Even week on crime
folks will get accused of It's okay, It's an incredible
strength to give someone mercy who has certainly someone who's
harmed you God forever, altered her life and she can
show mercy. Come on, y'all, that's remarkable.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
And look, it's it's not as if he's walking out
of prison. He will continue to serve the rest of
his life behind bars. He does being punished. Yeah, he's
going to die there for the crime. Yes, he's just
not going to die by nitrogen gas tomorrow, which.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Is Alabama's new thing. First state to ever start using that.
I think their past six or seven executions have been
with this nitrogen gas. And quite frankly, we have heard
some ugly reports out of what happens when people are
executed with this stuff, but they continue to use it.
But it is not happening tomorrow, this one at least. Meanwhile,
there's another one scheduled for tomorrow in Texas, I do believe,
(17:21):
and then another two scheduled for this month in Florida.
So there are more on the way robes, and more
will be added to the roles. And I'm sure, just
like last year, De Santo's down there, he signed any
death warrant they put in front of them.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, he is trying to get the more than two
hundred and fifty people I believe on death row. He's
trying to bring those numbers down and he's certainly going
at it. So, yes, there already will be how many
I guess it was three last month, and he's already
got two more this month. So we'll of course continue
to follow all of the developments, but this was this
was a moment that was worth noting and we hope
you got something out of it. Thank you for listening
(17:58):
to us. As always, I mean me Robot alongside TJ. Holmes.
We will have Morning run up for you very soon,
so watch out for that.
Hey, folks, it is Wednesday, March eleventh, and an execution
scheduled for tomorrow night has been called off for a
man who has been on death row for thirty five years,
convicted of murder, but everybody agrees he didn't actually kill anybody.
And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Roabe,
(00:33):
who should start with just how rare this is a
lot of executions get scheduled. It is rare for we
have a governor to step in and commute a sentence,
and this governor is in a state not necessarily known
for commutations.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That is all very true, but this case was exceptional
because you mentioned, Yes, Charles Sunnyburton, by all accounts, never
killed anyone. But let's take that even a step further.
He never directed anyone to kill someone. He wasn't even
in this same room where someone was murdered, and the
(01:10):
person who pulled the trigger isn't on death row. All
of that is just kind of head scratching, and it
all rose to a fever pitch this week.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
And yes, so what we're talking about here, folks. The
state I was talking about is Alabama. Alabama is known
for if you will executions, they often do lead or
up there in the top list every year of the
number of executions that they do pull off. And Alabama,
in fact, just a couple of years ago, led Texas
in the number of executions they have in one year.
Just to give you an idea, the governor there has
(01:43):
only done this twice in her history. This came after
a significant amount of pressure. Again, Robes the case we're
talking about here. Charles Burton is the guy's name, But
this is one of those cases where someone ends up
charged and convicted of murder that didn't actually kill anybody,
but they were a part of a crime that led
(02:07):
to a murder and Robes. That is the type of
law that sometimes is under scrutiny, but it's on the
books in a lot of places, and this is at
the heart of this case.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yes, it's called felony murder, meaning if you were a
part of a crime where a murder happened, it doesn't
matter if you pulled the trigger, it doesn't matter where
you were. If you were a part of a burglary,
a felony so to speak, and someone is murdered, you
are just as culpable according to this law as the
person who actually killed the other person. And this is
(02:36):
on the books. We just checked in forty six states
in this country. Four states have abolished it. Interestingly it
is they are Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Hawaii. Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky,
and Hawaii. Every other state in this country has these
laws on the books.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And this is what happened to Charles Burton back in
nineteen ninety one. Look at everybody it acknologists and admits
he was a part of a robbery at an auto zone.
Six guys going to rob this place. He is one
of the six. He runs in the part of the
robbery and runs out after robbing the place. His guys,
his boys are all you know, making their way out
(03:14):
of the store, if you will, robbery in progress. After
he leaves the store and is making his escape, one
of his accomplices shoots and kills a customer. He is
literally the guy on death row for thirty five years,
has was literally not even in the building when the
murder took place. The guy who actually did the murder
(03:36):
ends up getting the death penalty. I have it right.
He died in prison roads But did they not? They
took the death penalty back before he even died.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Right, his sentence was commuted to life in prison before
he died. Yes, so he was taken off death row.
And turns out Burton was the only member of that
six person team who went in to rob that store
who actually ended up on death row.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So let's do for the Claire already there, folks, we
are talking about a crime in which someone was shot
and killed. The guy who shot and killed the guy,
his sentence was reduced to life in prison. So why
is it the guy who did not pull the trigger?
Why would his sentence need to be death? That is
(04:19):
the basic breakdown of even if you're for the death
penalty robes, that doesn't make sense, correct.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And so, as you mentioned, there was mounting pressure from
the community there in Alabama, and not just from people
who know Sonny Burton, who loves Sonny Burton. No, it
wasn't just family and friends. This came from the victim's
own daughter. She wrote an op ed which we will
get into. It was very powerful at the end of
last year, begging, literally begging the governor to not kill
(04:51):
Charles Sonny Burton. She said it would not honor her
father's memory. And so with all of that pressure and
the clock ticking again. Burton's execution was scheduled for Thursday, yesterday,
and this was surprising, just even that it was so early,
the timing of it. Usually Governor's wait until the eleventh
hour to the last moment. Governor k Ivy decided to
(05:14):
come out on Tuesday and commute his sentence.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Well, she knew her answer already. Why wait and why
make him wait? That's me. I don't know if that
played into it, but from a human standpoint, that was
a little bit of humanity. I would say. She offered
him his family and his supporters.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And she actually released his statement and it was it
was very telling, and I thought it was very well said,
and it was certainly appreciated by Sunny Burton. But this
is what the governor announced yesterday. Doug Battle, that's the
victim in this case. Doug Battle was brutally murdered by
Derreck de Bruce while shopping in an auto parts store,
but de Bruce was ultimately sentenced to life without parole.
(05:52):
Charles Burton did not shoot the victim, did not direct
the triggerman to shoot the victim, and had already left
the store by the time time the shooting occurred, yet
mister Burton was said to be executed while de Bruce
was allowed to live out his life in prison. I
cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of mister
Burton under such disparate circumstances. I believe it would be
(06:15):
unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed
while the participant who pulled the trigger was not.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
That's simple. I mean, this is almost common sensical, and
I mean it just is. I don't necessarily hear that
much of a drum beat. We have the DA who
didn't agree with it. We'll hear those comments. But brother,
I mean, generally speaking, don't most level headed, decent folks
think that's what should happen.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I can't imagine that somebody, well other than the DA,
which yes, we will get into, would think otherwise. And
to that point, there was a petition on Monday that
folks delivered to the governor with more than sixty thousand
signatures from the state of Alabama asking for her to
commute his sentence, and they actually even had a demonstration.
They walked from the Governor's mansion to the state capital
(07:06):
about a mile and a half to try and just
create these images of solidarity to put the pressure on
the governor to do the right thing. And so she did,
and I actually really loved we got to hear directly
from Sunny Burton via his attorney, his reaction to the
governor's commutation. He said this to Governor and about Governor Ivy,
(07:27):
she has proven to the people of Alabama and the
world that she is a responsible governor. And I thank her.
Just saying thank you doesn't seem like much, but it's
what I can give her, and I do thank her.
Thank you. Governor.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Well, there is value still, right, And somebody's like, what
is he seventy five?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Seventy five?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
All right? So doing that math, he was around forty
or so when the crime took place. I mean, there
are people around him. They are family members, and someone
even in that jail, maybe that he's having an impression
his life is worth something to somebody. And I know
(08:07):
he's being punished for his crime. And it's one of
these weird stories. We cover a lot of these death
totally stories, and some of them have excuse me, robes.
It seems like almost the majority of have some kinds
of extenuating circumstance that makes you when you take it
all into context, it's not just guilt or innocence, death
(08:28):
or life. There's so much. Just like this case, Babe,
if you convicted murderer for a robbery that resulted in
a death, he sounds like the worst dude ever. But
in that group, sweetheart, he didn't go in there trying
to kill somebody.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
No, and he's I mean, there are lots of folks
who are around that time who said he actually was like,
no one gets hurt, no one gets hurt. He was
not a violent person. So yes, when we cover these cases,
a lot of times we're not oftentimes talking about these
premeditated evil and yes, that is sometimes what we see
in death row cases, but a lot of times it
(09:05):
is these stupid mistakes that people make when they're committing
another crime. Someone dies, not that you shouldn't have to
pay for it, but you start to actually examine what
happened leading up to the murders, and oftentimes it's not
what you would imagine in a death penalty case.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
It's what the law says is allowed. But is that
what it should be? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
It was interesting to hear from the DA, because you
heard the governor's words, you heard directly from sunny Burton,
and you will hear from the victim's daughter here. But
the DA was perhaps the one person who just he
dug in.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
He We always see this they sometimes when evidence is
presented of someone's innocence, the DA will still stand by
and the police will still stand by because they don't
want their work being questioned. And this is just this
is all this is.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, So this is what the DA had to say
following the Governor's decision. There has never been any doubt
that sunny Burton has Douglas Battles blood on his hands.
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
(10:22):
his case through endless, frivolous appeals. I firmly believe that
he should have faced the punishment imposed by a jury
of his peers and upheld by numerous judges. Damn, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
All that cases it's been upheld, all that stuff, does
it is true? But wow, we applied a little decency
into our justice system. I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, And I think he was implying that somehow the
reason why Burton was being or his death sentence was
being commuted to life in prison was because he is old.
That's not the case at all at all, and so he,
I think was conflating. He was trying to act as
if that was the reason why the governor made her decision,
and clearly it was not.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, he's getting special treatment.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Okay, all right, when we come back, this will leave
you with, I think, just some hope and some recognition
that there is beauty and decency in this world. We're
going to read you some of the most powerful excerpts
from the op ed that Doug Battle's daughter wrote to
the governor. Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy
(11:39):
and TJ, where we are talking about a really remarkable
situation that happened in the state of Alabama. You don't
see this every day, but Charles Sunny Burton on death
row his sentence was commuted by Governor k Ivy after
taking a look at the situation. There had been a drumbeat,
a groundswell of support for Burton because when you look
(12:00):
the facts of the case, this was someone was murdered
in the commission of a burglary that he was a
part of. He was not the person who pulled the trigger.
In fact, he wasn't even in the building when his
cohort shot Doug Battle in the back of customer who
was lying on the ground in the middle of this robbery.
And the man who pulled the trigger got a life sentence.
(12:22):
His death sentence was commuted to life in prison. In fact,
no one was executed for the murder except for Burton,
who was scheduled to die by nitrogen gas tomorrow. The
governor stepped in and made a decision to commute his
sentence to life in prison. This all came after an
op ed from Doug Battle's daughter. She wrote this at
(12:45):
the end of last year. Actually, and it's a powerful letter.
We've seen letters like this be written, and they're not
always considered. We've certainly seen that in other cases.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
And don't know for sure if the governor read it
or considered it, but it probably made.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Its way, yes, and her title was powerful just from
the start. My father was murdered, Alabama is about to
execute the wrong man. She goes on to say, today,
mister Burden is seventy five years old, wheelchair bound, and
in poor health, suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis. He is
(13:23):
frail and poses no threat, yet Alabama plans to execute
him using nitrogen hypoxia, an untested execution method that would
cause him to suffocate while conscious. It's interesting. She goes
on to say when she was a child, she was nine,
by the way, when her father was murdered, she wanted
to see these men die, but that changed as she
got older.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
And Yeah, if justice had been I guess rendered immediately,
we never would have had thirty five years of people
to grow up, to come around, to understand the case
a little differently, understand the law a little differently, and
maybe just to soften their hearts. I don't know. Is
the time good for justice or bad for justice? Depends
on which side.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That's a really, really good point. It's so interesting how
what you think about something or how you feel about
a situation can drastically change over time. And we have
seen this, we have talked about this, and she expresses
this in this letter. How frustrated she was because she
said she was told by the Attorney General's office that
she had no say, no say in what happened. And
(14:26):
we've seen that with victim's families not having any say
in the punishment.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I don't know if she did this time at all,
but I will continue to be an advocate for that
law when the death penalty is on the table. When
the death penalty is imposed, I guess by a jury,
I think yes. The family of the victim should be
the one to ultimately say no. I shouldn't be able
to say yes, I want somebody killed, but you should
be able to say no. And this is one of
(14:53):
those these folks should be listened to.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yes like almost in a sense, giving the victim's family
veto power to a death sentence. She said, I am
a victim's family member. My voice should matter. Her final
paragraph was the one that I hope will leave everybody
with a yes, a hopeful feeling. My love for my
father does not require another death, especially one that defies reason.
(15:17):
Mercy does not dishonor him. It honors the values he
taught me. I ask Governor k Ivy to review this
case and commute Charles Burton's sentence. If she cannot, I
ask her to do something this state has never done.
Explain honestly and directly why Alabama believes this execution is necessary.
I have been waiting for answers since I was nine
(15:39):
years old, and just writing that ap ed in the
paper reached Burton and he reacted to it, saying, she
forgave me. And I want to say how much I
appreciated that she lifts a whole lot of guilt off
of me. It has been remarkable to see victims families
offer grace.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, because they need peace, and that's usually what comes
out of it. What does it serve? Whose memory? Does
it serve to kill somebody else? Ever, and again, people
think justice, and I know there are death penalty advocates
out there, but she the most important word there. And
when we don't hear a live man is mercy. Why
do we not get out of our heads that mercy
(16:21):
can be a sign of strength for whatever reason, if
you show mercy, you're a weakling. Even week on crime
folks will get accused of It's okay, It's an incredible
strength to give someone mercy who has certainly someone who's
harmed you God forever, altered her life and she can
show mercy. Come on, y'all, that's remarkable.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
And look, it's it's not as if he's walking out
of prison. He will continue to serve the rest of
his life behind bars. He does being punished. Yeah, he's
going to die there for the crime. Yes, he's just
not going to die by nitrogen gas tomorrow, which.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Is Alabama's new thing. First state to ever start using that.
I think their past six or seven executions have been
with this nitrogen gas. And quite frankly, we have heard
some ugly reports out of what happens when people are
executed with this stuff, but they continue to use it.
But it is not happening tomorrow, this one at least. Meanwhile,
there's another one scheduled for tomorrow in Texas, I do believe,
(17:21):
and then another two scheduled for this month in Florida.
So there are more on the way robes, and more
will be added to the roles. And I'm sure, just
like last year, De Santo's down there, he signed any
death warrant they put in front of them.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, he is trying to get the more than two
hundred and fifty people I believe on death row. He's
trying to bring those numbers down and he's certainly going
at it. So, yes, there already will be how many
I guess it was three last month, and he's already
got two more this month. So we'll of course continue
to follow all of the developments, but this was this
was a moment that was worth noting and we hope
you got something out of it. Thank you for listening
(17:58):
to us. As always, I mean me Robot alongside TJ. Holmes.
We will have Morning run up for you very soon,
so watch out for that.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Robach
T.J. Holmes
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