Alabama man faces execution despite not pulling the trigger in auto store customer's death
Charles “Sonny” Burton didn’t kill anyone. The state of Alabama could execute him anyway.
Burton, 75, is facing execution for his role as an accomplice in a 1991 robbery at an auto parts store where customer Doug Battle was killed. No one disputes that another man, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed Battle. Burton, one of six men involved in the robbery, was outside the store at the time of the shooting, according to testimony.
DeBruce and Burton were both sentenced to death. But DeBruce was later resentenced to life imprisonment, leaving Burton — who neither fired the gun nor ordered anyone to be killed -- as the only person facing execution.
Matt Schulz, Burton’s attorney, said the case “represents an extreme outlier” among death penalty cases.
The Alabama Supreme Court in January authorized Gov. Kay Ivey to set an execution date for Burton using nitrogen gas. The victim’s daughter and multiple jurors from his 1992 trial are now urging the governor to grant clemency, arguing the case raises fundamental questions of fairness.
“We hope and pray that Governor Ivey recognizes that this case slipped through the cracks. It would be wrong to execute a man who did not even see the shooting take place, after the state agreed to resentence the shooter to life without parole, and this is simply not the kind of case most people think of when they envision the death penalty being carried out,” Schulz said.
https://apnews.com/article/alabama-death-penalty-triggerman-burton-debruce-2fd4d8abb9bca606c8037d428913c
This is so wtong in so many different ways I can't even begin to comment.
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