The Empty Execution Chamber: Death Penalty Opponents Help Killers Like Sonny Burton Get Away With Murder

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Above is Charles “Sonny” Burton, a black man who lives in Alabama—on Death Row, pictured at age 41. In 1991, he led a robbery gang into an Autozone in a robbery which killed Doug Battle, a 31 year-old veteran of the US Army. As the leader of the gang, he was sentenced to death under the centuries-old felony murder rule, even though it was one of his henchmen who pulled the trigger.

The victim, Douglas Levester Battle, was as far as I know, also black. He’s buried in the Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery, which is a black church, and most people who are named Levester are black.

But I think if Burton had killed a white man, it would be mentioned by the people who are trying to save his life—as a sort of mitigation, or to indicate that he had received “Southern Justice“. That’s what happened in the case here.

This is what Burton looks like now:

The New York Times story He Didn’t Kill Anyone. Alabama Is About to Execute Him Anyway. starts out

Sonny Burton is not a killer. No one disputes this. Yet he has spent nearly half his life on death row. At age 75, he spends most of his days in a wheelchair and wears a padded helmet because he falls frequently.

My first thought, reading that, was that (a) the reason that he got that old in prison is because he’s spent 35 years in meritless appeals of the death penalty, and (b) if he lived in Canada, he’d already be dead of MAID.

Canada has no death penalty, and will refuse to extradite people who might get the death penalty, no matter how much they deserve it.

But they allow innocent elderly people, some in much better shape than Button, to be put down like dogs. [FIRST READING: Canada likely to mark 100,000th MAID death by summer, February 24, 2026]

Burton was 41 at the time of the killing. His survival after Bill Clinton’s first term constitutes a miscarriage of justice, and in fact, during Clinton’s first term, he signed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), which tried to limit the number of meritless appeals and prevent murderers from growing old and feeble on death row.

The trial took place so long ago that Burton was sentenced to death by electrocution, which is almost never used these days, and hasn’t been used in Alabama since 2002. He is obviously the kind of person who should be executed under the felony murder rule.

From a Supreme Court brief

…Charles Lee Burton, was convicted of murder made capital because it was committed during the course of a robbery in the first degree. § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Code of Alabama 1975. The jury unanimously voted for the death penalty. The trial court accepted the jury’s recommendation and sentenced the appellant to death by electrocution.

The state’s evidence tended to show that on August 16, 1991, six men — the appellant, Derrick DeBruce, Deon Long, LuJuan McCants, Willie Brantley, and Andre Jones — robbed the occupants of the Auto Zone automobile parts store in Talladega, Alabama. During the course of the robbery, a customer, Doug Battle, was shot. He died as a result of a gunshot wound to the lower back, which pierced his chest. The trigger man was Derrick DeBruce.

The manager of the store, Larry McCardle, was at the cash register when an individual he identified as the appellant entered the store, purchased some items, and asked him for the location of the restroom. McCardle testified that at this time another customer, whom he identified as DeBruce, was in the store. After the appellant started walking to the restroom, DeBruce pulled a gun and told everyone in the store to get on the floor. At this point, the appellant grabbed McCardle, pointed a gun at him and told him to take him to the safe. McCardle complied.

Moments later McCardle heard yelling and gunshots. One of the appellant’s codefendant’s [sic], LuJuan McCants, testified that the six men involved in the robbery were at Barbara Spencer’s house in Montgomery on April 16 talking about committing a robbery. He said that Deon Long, Charles Burton, and Derrick DeBruce left the Spencer house to get some guns. They agreed to meet at the appellant’s house. They left the appellant’s house in two cars and headed toward Birmingham. They exited the interstate at Sylacauga and proceeded to Talladega. In Talladega, they went to a carwash and discussed robbing the Auto Zone store. They left one car at the carwash and they all proceeded in the other car to the Auto Zone.

McCants testified that the appellant organized the criminal activity and that he told the others what to do during the robbery. The appellant told McCants and Long to watch the door and told them that if he left the store that they should forget the robbery plans. McCants testified that the appellant also told them that if anyone caused any trouble in the store to let him handle the situation. McCants also testified that everyone who went into the store had a gun except Deon Long. McCants said that they forced everyone in the store to get on the floor and that they then took their valuables. The victim, Battle, walked in while the robbery was in progress and McCants told him to get on the floor. Battle was having some difficulty getting on the floor and an argument ensued between DeBruce and Battle. DeBruce hit Battle and he fell to the ground.

DeBruce then shot Battle in the back while he was laying face-down on the floor. McCants testified that all of the robbers had either left the store or were about to leave when DeBruce shot Battle. He said that the appellant was among those who had already left the store at the time of the shooting. After all six left the store, they jumped in their car, picked up the other car at the carwash where they had left it, went to Barbara Spencer’s house and divided the money

In the New York Times article above [Archive link] Elizabeth Vartkessian, who’s spent the last 20 years trying to help killers get away with murder, writes

Here are the facts of Mr. Burton’s case: On a summer day in 1991, he accompanied Derrick DeBruce and four other men to an AutoZone store in Talladega. He carried a gun. He traumatized people. He stole recklessly. Then, Mr. Burton left the store. Mr. DeBruce stayed behind and killed a man.

Mr. DeBruce was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Mr. Burton was also convicted of murder and was sentenced under a state law that permits accomplices to receive the death penalty if a murder happens during the course of another felony, like a robbery.

The trial judge made the following finding at the time of the trial, that Burton was not DeBruce’s “accomplice”, he was his leader.

There’s an op-ed in the Alabama Political Reporter by the victim’s daughter, Tori Battle, opposing the execution:

Earlier this year, I was informed that the state intended to move forward with Mr. Burton’s execution. When I was contacted by the Attorney General’s Victims’ Assistance Office and said I opposed the execution, I was told my opinion did not matter. As the victim’s child, I was not consulted about mercy, only about logistics.

What that means is she’s allowed to attend the execution, but not prevent it.

My opposition to this execution is not a betrayal of my father. It is an affirmation of the values he lived by, and that I have tried to instill in my children. Justice can be measured by our commitment to truth and our willingness to show mercy

Opinion | I lost my father to violence. Executing the wrong man won’t bring justice

Another death will not bring him back. It will only deepen my trauma and the moral cost we all share.

By Tori Battle, December 24, 2025

While people are entitled to feel forgiveness for people who’ve killed their family members, they’re not allowed to let that interfere with justice. It’s not only about avenging the murder of Doug Battle, but of preventing other murders.

In his 1979 book For Capital Punishment: Crime and the Morality of the Death Penalty [Online here] Walter Berns pointed out that one study shows that each execution can save up to eight lives.

It’s those lives that “death penalty opponents” don’t care about—the only lives they want to save are those of murderers.

James Fulford has been writing about the national question for over 20 years, mostly for VDARE.com, more recently for WhitePapers.