Op-Ed: Alabama to Execute Man Who Never Killed

Alabama is preparing to execute a man everyone agrees did not kill anyone, yet was still convicted of murder. In a New York Times op-ed, mitigation specialist Elizabeth Vartkessian, founder of a nonprofit focused on centering empathy and dignity within the criminal justice system, details the case of 75-year-old Sonny Burton, who's spent nearly half his life on death row for a 1991 AutoZone robbery in which another man, Derrick DeBruce, stayed behind and shot the victim. DeBruce's death sentence was later reduced to life without parole; Burton is due to be executed next week.

Vartkessian of Advancing Real Change asks how that can be called justice. Alabama law allows an accomplice to be condemned if a killing happens during another felony, but Vartkessian notes it is extremely rare in the US to execute someone who did not actually kill. Jurors and even the victim's daughter are urging Gov. Kay Ivey to spare Burton's life by granting clemency. "Governors of other states with similar laws have granted clemency under such conditions," Vartkessian writes.

But Ivey has granted clemency only once in nearly a decade in the governor's office, so hope isn't high. Ivey herself said last year that she had no plans for clemency in the case, per WBRC. If she doesn't act, Burton, mostly confined to a wheelchair, will be put to death March 12 using nitrogen gas, a method veterinarians reject for most animals and that has already produced a widely criticized execution in Alabama. Vartkessian argues this case is a test of whether the state can choose mercy over what she calls a culture of indifference. For the full argument, read the full piece in the Times. AL.com has more on Burton's final appeals.