Alabama is set to execute Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton, who said he ‘shouldn’t die’ because he didn’t kill anyone before he was arrested
Ahead of his execution on Thursday, March 12, Burton, 75, spoke to NBC News about his fate. “I shouldn’t die for something I haven’t done,” he said on a phone interview from William C. Holman Correctional Facility, which is where he has spent more than 30 years on death row.
Burton was given the death sentence because of a legal doctrine known as felony murder. The doctrine allows prosecutors to treat anyone involved in certain felonies as equally responsible for a killing that took place during the crime, even if they didn’t commit the killing themselves. In 1991, Burton and five other men were involved in a robbery of an AutoZone store in Talladega, Alabama, which ended with the murder of customer Doug Battle. Burton admitted that he entered the store with a gun and stole cash from a safe in the back room. He then said that he fled outside to wait by a getaway car. While Burton was outside, one of his accomplices, Derrick DeBruce, fatally shot Battle in the back. The state acknowledged that Burton was not responsible for the killing in his application for a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court. “DeBruce hit Battle, knocking him to the floor, then fatally shot him in the back. Burton had already left the store when the shooting occurred,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote, per NBC News. Burton also told the outlet that he “didn’t know a murder was going to happen” at the time of the robbery. “I would have stopped that,” he added. After he was arrested, Burton was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Prosecutors argued during the trial that he was the robbery’s “ringleader,” though he has denied that claim.Meanwhile, DeBruce was initially sentenced to death. His punishment was later changed to life in prison after a court ruled that his attorney had provided ineffective representation at the time of the trial. Burton and DeBruce lived alongside each other on death row for several years before the latter’s sentence was reduced. After his death sentence was overturned, DeBruce moved to another prison. He later died in custody in 2020. “He got me with my life for something stupid that he did,” Burton said of DeBruce. “But I forgave him.” While Burton’s sentence has never changed, he has gained support from those who believe the punishment is unfair. In December 2025, the victim’s daughter, Tori Battle, published an op-ed in the Montgomery Advertiser that urged Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to take Burton off of death row. “Mr. Burton remains on death row not because moral clarity demands it, but because procedural rules have blocked courts from correcting past mistakes,” she wrote. “When a man’s life turns on technical barriers rather than the truth, that is not justice, but a failure of the system that does nothing to honor my father’s memory.” Meanwhile, several of the jurors who voted for him to receive the death penalty have come forward saying they regret their decision. Additionally, six signed affidavits have since been sent asking Ivey to show Burton mercy. Despite the long list of supporters behind Burton, the state has argued that Burton’s execution is justified. “His death sentence is long overdue,” Alabama’s attorney general wrote in the Supreme Court filing, per the outlet. As his execution date nears, Burton said he has not lost hope. “I’ll never lose hope, even when I’m sitting in the chair with the strapped on my head,” he said. “I want people that listen to me to know that I didn’t kill nobody. These are my last words.”
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