Alabama governor commutes death sentence of inmate whose accomplice fired fatal shot

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old inmate who was set to be executed this week even though he was not in the building when the victim was killed. Ivey on Tuesday reduced Charles “Sonny” Burton’s sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole. Burton was sentenced to death for the shooting death of Doug Battle during a 1991 robbery. However, another man shot Battle when Burton had left the building. The shooter’s death sentence was later reduced on appeal to life imprisonment. Ivey said she thought it would be “unjust" to execute Burton, considering that the shooter was spared the death penalty.