Another Day in Alabama, Another Black Man Set to Be Executed At the Hands of Kay Ivey
Charles Lee "Sonny" Burton is yet another victim of a cruel, unjust system that relishes in capital punishment. He's scheduled to be executed next month by nitrogen suffocation.
The death penalty carries the inherent risk of executing an innocent person. Since 1973, at least 202 people who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated.
The Death Penalty Information Center
In 1991, Charles Lee “Sonny” Burton, along with five other men, robbed an AutoZone in Talladega, AL. During the robbery, one of the group’s accomplices, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed a store patron named Doug Battle.
Both Burton’s attorneys and the prosecution agree that Sonny was not the one who pulled the trigger.
All six of the men involved were tried and convicted. Four of them were sentenced to life in prison, while Sonny Burton and Derrick DeBruce—the man who inarguably pulled the trigger—both received death sentences.
DeBruce later had his death sentence overturned on appeal, and he was resentenced to life in prison without parole (he has since passed).
However, Sonny is still on death row.
25 EXECUTIONS
According to the EJI, Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, has overseen 25 death row executions since taking office in 2017. Among them, there have been public claims of innocence, intellectual disability, and juror opposition, with attorneys and advocates arguing that some cases warranted further investigation. The state ultimately allowed the executions to proceed.
Ivey has commuted a sentence only once, and at least three executions have been botched during her time in office.
In 2024, Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first known person in the world to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia after a botched attempt using lethal injection in November 2022.
“…each execution by nitrogen hypoxia resulted in what Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has called “psychological terror” and “excruciating suffocation.”
Austin Sarat, VERDICT
Charles Burton is scheduled to be Alabama’s first execution this year and would be the fifth nitrogen hypoxia execution in the state if Governor Ivey does not grant clemency. There’s still time to intervene.
Those who want to take action can contact Governor Kay Ivey’s office directly at governor.alabama.gov/contact or sign the clemency letter at:
Public pressure + clemency requests are submitted to the Governor’s office ahead of the execution date.