Alabama Governor Commutes Death Sentence

0:00You're listening to Birmingham News today, powered by the Daily News, now. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has commuted the death sentence of 75-year-old death row inmate Charles Sonny Burton to life in prison without. Perot. This decision came just days before his scheduled execution by nitrogen gas for a 1991 murder in Talladega. Burton was convicted in the armed robbery that killed Army veteran Douglas Battle at a store. He was not the one who pulled the trigger, but prosecutors said he planned the crime and held a gun to the store manager's head. Attorney General Steve Marshall strongly criticized the move, calling it deeply disappointing. He argued, Burton is a murderer who deserves no special treatment just because of his age and stressed accomplice liability under Alabama law. Ivey and her second such commutation over the past decade pointed to fairness as the key reason. He noted the actual shooter, dared to bruise, faces life without parole, not execution, and

1:00said the death penalty must be applied proportionately. Now Burton will serve out his days behind bars, matching the triggerman sentence as the debate over capital punishment fairness continues in the state. DNN is sponsored by our partner, a pillow that plays your podcasts, music, or white noise privately.