Alabama inmate who didn't even witness murder is being executed for it
USA TODAY
While the man who killed Doug Battle got a life sentence, one of his accomplices is about to be executed even though he wasn't in the building.
Alabama is set to execute an inmate this week who wasn't even in the building when the murder he was convicted of took place.
Charles Lee “Sonny” Burton, 75, is set to be executed by a controversial method using nitrogen gas on Thursday, March 12, for the death of Doug Battle, a customer killed during a robbery of an AutoZone in Talladega, Alabama, on Aug. 16, 1991.
Burton and five other men robbed the store and its customers that day. But only one of the robbers, a man named Derrick DeBruce, decided to shoot Battle. Burton had already left the building and had no idea Battle had been shot.
Like many other states, Alabama law allows a defendant who participated in a felony like robbery to be convicted of murder, even if they didn't do any killing themselves. Burton was convicted under that law and sentenced to death. Meanwhile DeBruce got a sentence of life in prison.
Tori Battle, who was just 9 years old when DeBruce killed her father, is among those fighting for a reprieve for Burton.
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