USA - Charles Burton (AL)

USA - Alabama. Victim’s Daughter and Juror Oppose Execution of Charles Burton

February 2, 2026:

February 2, 2026 - Alabama. Victim’s Daughter and Former Juror Oppose Execution of Alabama Man Who Officials Acknowledges Did Not Pull the Trigger

2 women intimately connected to a 1991 murder case in Alabama have publicly opposed the intended execution of Charles “Sonny” Burton, a man both the state and his attorneys acknowledge did not fire the fatal shot. Priscilla Townsend, who served on the jury that sentenced Mr. Burton to death, and Tori Battle, whose father Doug Battle was killed during the robbery in question, have each written op-eds urging Governor Kay Ivey to grant clemency. On January 22, 2026, the Alabama Supreme Court authorized Governor Kay Ivey to set an execution date for Mr. Burton.

Mr. Burton, now 75, was convicted of capital murder for his role in an August 1991 robbery in Talladega, Alabama. 6 men participated in the robbery. Mr. Burton took money from the safe and had left the store when Derrick DeBruce shot and killed Mr. Battle during an altercation. Mr. Burton was convicted under Alabama’s felony murder statute, which holds participants in certain felonies liable for any deaths that occur during the commission of those crimes. Mr. DeBruce, the acknowledged shooter, was also sentenced to death, but in 2002 his sentence was overturned and the state agreed to resentence him to life without parole.

Ms. Townsend, who served on Mr. Burton’s jury in 1992, recently wrote that she has thought about her decision for more than 3 decades. “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,” Ms. Townsend wrote. “At the time, I did not fully understand what that meant. I do now.” During the trial, prosecutors characterized Mr. Burton as the “ring leader” of the crew. For Ms. Townsend, “that description shaped everything,” saying that “it shaped how the evidence was viewed, how responsibility was assigned, and how punishment was justified. I believed it. The jury believed. I no longer believe it was true.”

The disparity between Mr. Burton’s and Mr. DeBruce’s sentences weighs on her. “For more than 30 years, Mr. Burton has remained under a sentence of death,” she wrote. “Continuing to pursue his execution does not bring back the life that was lost. It does not make Alabama safer. It only deepens an injustice that began decades ago.” Ms. Townsend believes Mr. Burton has served his time and should be home with his family. “But, at the very least, he does not deserve to die for a shooting he did not commit.”

Tori Battle was 9 years old when her father was killed. In a December 24, 2025, op-ed, she questioned the state’s decision to seek an execution date for Mr. Burton. “Why is the state preparing to execute Charles Burton, a man who did not kill my father,” she wrote. Ms. Battle also noted that Mr. Burton had left the store when her father was shot, and “there is no evidence that Mr. Burton knew, or had any intent, that a shooting would occur.” She added that in 2025, the Attorney General’s Victims’ Assistance Office notified her that the state would be seeking an execution date for Mr. Burton, and she told them she opposed the execution. She wrote, “I was told my opinion did not matter. As the victim’s child, I was not consulted about mercy, only about logistics.” For Ms. Battle, her understanding of justice has evolved and as child she “believed justice meant punishment,” but she has since “learned that justice cannot be reduced to finality. A system that values procedural rigidity over truth demonstrates to her that it does not revere justice.”

Reporting from 2019 indicates 3 jurors who sentenced Mr. Burton to death have signed affidavits stating they would not oppose a sentence reduction given that Mr. DeBruce’s sentence was reduced. Of the 6 men involved in the robbery, Mr. Burton remains the only one facing execution. 3 are serving prison sentences, one has been released, and one has died. Mr. Burton, who uses a wheelchair, wears a helmet because of frequent falls, and suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis and hepatitis C, has issued a public apology for his involvement in Doug Battle’s death. In 2016 he wrote, “I never expected it would end in Doug Battle losing his life in murder. And I was terribly horrified when I learned that it did.” In conversation with the ACLU, Mr. Burton said he wants Mr. Battle’s family “to make sure [they] know that [he is] really sorry about what happened to Doug,” but “he did not kill him.”

Both Ms. Townsend and Ms. Battle have directed their appeals to Gov. Ivey. “Clemency exists for cases like this,” Ms. Townsend wrote. “When the punishment simply does not fit the crime, when time has revealed flaws in how a sentence was reached, mercy serves justice better than death.”

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/victims-daughter-and-former-juror-oppose-execution-of-alabama-man-who-officials-acknowledges-did-not-pull-the-trigger