The governor of Alabama made a last-minute decision to spare a 75-year-old inmate from execution because he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger on the gun that killed a father more than three decades ago. 

Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton was set to be put to death by nitrogen gas on Thursday over the 1991 murder of Doug Battle, but on Tuesday, Governor Kay Ivey commuted his death sentence and reduced it to life behind bars without parole.

Battle was shot to death during a robbery gone wrong at an AutoZone store in Talladega, about an hour outside of Montgomery, that involved Burton and five other suspects, including Derrick DeBruce. 

DeBruce was the one who shot Battle that day, but anyone who participates in a robbery that ends in death can still be convicted of murder in the state of Alabama. 

Both of them were convicted of murder, but DeBruce had his death sentence reduced to life in prison without parole in 2014 before his death in 2020. 

Meanwhile, Sonny has been on death row for more than 33 years for a murder where he did not kill the victim. 

With just two days before he was scheduled to be executed, Ivey decided to spare Burton’s life. 

‘I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr. Burton under such disparate circumstances,’ Levy said. 

‘I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not.’ 

Her rare clemency decision came after supporters flooded the streets near the governor’s mansion in recent days, calling for Burton to be taken off death row. 

Levy was also faced with an opinion essay written by Tori Battle, the victim’s daughter. 

Tori was just nine-years-old when when her father was taken from her, and she knows Burton wasn’t the one who did it, she wrote in the piece in The Montgomery Advisor in December. 

She wrote: ‘Like any child faced with sudden, senseless violence, I asked a question that had no answer: Why did you have to kill him?

‘More than three decades later, I am asking that question again. This time to the State of Alabama.

‘Alabama plans to execute Charles “Sonny” Burton, a man who did not kill my father.’ 

Tori said she openly opposed Burton’s execution after she was contacted by the Attorney General’s Office earlier this year about it, but she was not allowed to have a say. 

‘No one from the State has ever sat with me to explain why Alabama believes it must execute a man who did not kill my father,’ she added. 

‘I am a victim’s family member. My voice should matter. My love for my father does not require another death, especially one that defies reason. Mercy does not dishonor him. It honors the values he taught me,’ Tori continued. 

Priscilla Townsend, who served on the jury during Burton’s sentencing, also came forward in support of him more than 30 years later. 

‘Mr. Burton was not inside the AutoZone at the time of the murder. He was not the shooter, and yet the state sought and secured a death sentence against him anyway,’ she said, according to Death Penalty Information Center. 

In reference to her decision all those years ago, Townsend admitted: ‘At the time, I did not fully understand what that meant. I do now.’

After news broke that Burton was not going to be put to death, an Instagram account dedicated to getting his sentence commuted and telling his story said they are ‘deeply grateful’ to the governor for her decision. 

‘This decision ensures that the ultimate and irreversible punishment will not be carried out…. Today is a reminder that mercy remains an essential part of justice,’ the page, ‘life4sonnyb’, said. 

Burton also thanked the governor directly after hearing he was no longer going to be on death row. 

‘She has proven to the people of Alabama, and the world, that she is a responsible governor. And I thank her,’ he said. 

‘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.’ 

Over the years, Burton has suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, leading him to get around by wheelchair in prison, the group said. 

The page has shared past images of Burton with his family before he was taken into custody, and more recent pictures of him with his daughter Carolyn. 

He has also taken the time to reflect on the crime he committed, writing a letter to the Battle family about how sorry he is for what happened. 

‘I sincerely apologize for taking so long to say this. I have struggled with this for years,’ he told the family, Local 3 News reported. 

Burton also revealed that he never thought the robbery would end in murder, ‘and I was terribly horrified when I learn[ed] it did,’ he wrote.