Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is not happy with the Governor’s decision to commute the sentence of a death row inmate days before his scheduled execution.
“I am deeply disappointed to learn that Governor Ivey has commuted the death sentence of Sonny Burton,” Marshall said. “While the media has done its best to paint Mr. Burton as a harmless, decrepit old man, he is a murderer. He organized an armed robbery, held a gun to the store manager’s head, and callously doled out the proceeds of the robbery once Douglas Battle, an army veteran, was dead.”
Governor Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of Charles “Sonny” Burton to life in prison with no chance of parole Tuesday, two days before he was scheduled to be executed for a 1991 murder he did not commit and was not present for.
Ivey said she made this decision because Burton “did not shoot the victim, did not direct the triggerman to shoot the victim and had already left the store by the time the shooting occurred.”
Marshall, who is a candidate for U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe Ivey gave a satisfactory reason for the commutation.
“Burton was a career criminal before he became a murderer, and the jury rightfully held him responsible for the death that he caused,” Marshall continued. “Longstanding Alabama law recognizes accomplice liability, as has every judge that has touched this case over three decades. There has never been any doubt that Sonny Burton has Douglas Battle’s blood on his hands.”
A jury convicted Burton in 1992 of felony capital murder in the death of Doug Battle, who was shot and killed during a robbery at a Talladega AutoZone store. Burton participated in the robbery but had already left the store when Battle was killed. Derrick DeBruce, who pulled the trigger, was also sentenced to death but later had his sentence commuted to life without parole. DeBruce died while incarcerated in 2020.
Marshall said there was no reason to give the man any kind of “special treatment.”
“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 his case through endless frivolous appeals,” he argued. “I firmly believe that he should have faced the punishment imposed by a jury of his peers and upheld by numerous judges.”
“I do not want today’s result to cause Alabamians to lose faith in our justice system,” he added. “For as long as I am Attorney General, I will not shy away from calling evil, evil and will do everything in my power to ensure that violence perpetrated against innocent Alabamians is punished mightily and without hesitation.”
Katherine Robertson, chief counsel to the Alabama Attorney General and candidate for that office in 2026, also said she disagreed with the Governor, while also blasting Democrats for supporting the move.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
