India, March 10 -- Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of Charles "Sonny" Burton to life imprisonment in response to growing public opposition to his impending execution scheduled for Thursday.

In 1992, a jury found Burton guilty of felony capital murder for the death of AutoZone customer Doug Battle, which occurred during a robbery at an AutoZone store in Talladega in 1991.

Although Burton participated in the robbery, he did not kill Battle and was not present in the store at the time of the murder. Derrick DeBruce, who was responsible for shooting and killing Battle, was also sentenced to death but later had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. DeBruce passed away in 2020.

In a news release, Ivey s...