更新于： 2026年2月6日 / 美国东部时间上午7:17 / CBS/美联社
阿拉巴马州已为一名因1991年一起抢劫杀人案被判处死刑的男子定下3月执行日期，尽管他并未扣动扳机。
州长凯·艾维周四宣布，75岁的查尔斯·“桑尼”·伯顿（Charles “Sonny” Burton）将于3月12日通过氮气执行死刑。伯顿因在当年8月16日塔拉德加市一家汽车零件店抢劫期间，作为共犯被定罪杀害顾客道格·巴特尔（Doug Battle）。
伯顿并未开枪射杀巴特尔，案发时也不在汽车零件店（AutoZone）内。然而，检方将其描绘为抢劫主谋，并寻求对其判处死刑。实际开枪者德里克·迪布鲁（Derrick DeBruce）同样被判处死刑，但后来刑期减为终身监禁，并在狱中去世。
包括受害者子女和部分陪审员在内的多方人士曾敦促州长考虑对伯顿宽大处理。他们认为，既然实际开枪者刑期更轻，处死伯顿有失公平。
伯顿的律师马特·舒尔茨（Matt Schulz）表示：“我们对艾维州长决定为伯顿设定执行日期感到非常失望。但我们希望并祈祷她能像俄克拉荷马州州长斯蒂特在11月所做的那样改变主意，停止这场对从未亲手杀人者的不公处决。”
艾维在通知监狱专员执行日期的信件中表示，目前无计划给予赦免，但保留“在执行前任何时间给予缓刑或减刑的权力”。
阿拉巴马州总检察长史蒂夫·马歇尔（Steve Marshall）办公室反对宽大处理请求，截至发稿未立即回复置评邮件。
其办公室发言人此前声明：“伯顿于1992年4月被判犯有一级谋杀罪，陪审团一致建议判处死刑。该定罪和判决在各级法院均获维持。”
舒尔茨指出，在2015年的法庭文件中，州政府为维持对迪布鲁的死刑判决时曾辩称，若仅对伯顿判处死刑而不对杀人者定罪，“在法律上有失公正”。
（图片说明：2026年1月28日，阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利市，埃迪·梅·埃利森、杰基·布拉德福德、玛丽·布拉德福德和 Lois Harris举着标语，呼吁阿拉巴马州州长凯·艾维对其家人查尔斯·“桑尼”·伯顿给予赦免。Kim Chandler/美联社）
艾维自2017年上任以来仅批准过一次赦免。
陪审员表达疑虑
根据赦免请愿书，1992年审判中尚存的8名陪审员中有6人不反对减刑，3人明确请求减刑，称若开枪者刑期更轻，他们绝不会建议判处死刑。
陪审员普里西拉·汤森德（Priscilla Townsend）在电话采访中表示：“这绝对不公平。你不应该处决未扣动扳机的人。”
汤森德称，在情绪激动的审判后他们才建议判处死刑。她表示，自己至今仍支持对“罪大恶极者”适用死刑，但伯顿不属于此类。
她在上个月发表于AL.com的文章《我在阿拉巴马州判处一人死刑，我错了》中写道，数十年来她一直在反思伯顿案的审判与结果：
“伯顿案发时不在汽车零件店，也未开枪，然而州政府仍执意对其判处死刑。当时我未能完全理解这意味着什么，现在我明白了。”
她还在文中回忆，检方将伯顿描绘为“主谋”，这一描述“塑造了我们对审判的全部认知”：
“它影响了证据的解读、责任的认定和刑罚的正当性。我曾深信不疑，陪审团也如此认为。但现在我不再相信这是事实。”
美国公民自由联盟（ACLU）数据显示，27个州允许对参与导致他人死亡的重罪者执行死刑，即便其未直接动手杀人。
Alabama sets nitrogen gas execution date for man in 1991 killing, even though he didn’t pull the trigger
Updated on: February 6, 2026 / 7:17 AM EST / CBS/AP
Alabama has scheduled a March execution date for a man sentenced to death for a fatal shooting during a 1991 robbery even though he didn’t pull the trigger.
Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday set a March 12 execution using nitrogen gas for Charles “Sonny” Burton, 75. Burton was convicted as an accomplice in the shooting death of Doug Battle, a customer who was killed during an Aug. 16 robbery that year of an auto parts store in Talladega.
Burton did not shoot Battle and was not in the AutoZone store at the time of the fatal shooting. However, prosecutors depicted him as the ringleader of the robbery and sought a death sentence for him. Derrick DeBruce, the man who fired the gun, also was sentenced to death but later had his sentence reduced to life imprisonment and died in prison.
A cross-section of people, including one of the victim’s children and some jurors, had urged the governor to consider clemency for Burton. They argued it would be unfair to execute Burton when the triggerman ended up receiving a lesser sentence.
“We are very disappointed that Governor Ivey has opted to set an execution date for Mr. Burton. But we hope and pray that she, like Oklahoma Governor Stitt did in November, still changes her mind and stops this unjust execution of a man who has never taken a life,” Matt Schulz, Burton’s attorney, said.
In the letter notifying the prison commissioner of the date, Ivey wrote that she has no current plans to grant clemency but maintains the authority to “grant a reprieve or commutation, if necessary, at any time before the execution is carried out.”
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office had opposed the clemency request. His office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
“Burton was convicted of capital murder in April 1992 and the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. That conviction and sentence have been upheld at every level,” a spokesperson for the office said in an earlier statement.
Schulz noted that in seeking to uphold a death sentence for DeBruce, the state had argued in a 2015 court filing that its would be “arguably unjust” to affirm a death sentence for Burton but not the person who killed Battle.
Eddie Mae Ellison, Jackie Bradford, Mary Bradford and Lois Harris hold signs urging Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to grant clemency for their family member Charles “Sonny” Burton, Jan. 28, 2026 in Montgomery, Ala. Kim Chandler/AP
Ivey has granted clemency once since taking office in 2017.
Jurors express doubts
Six of the eight living jurors from the 1992 trial do not object to commutation, according to the clemency petition. Three are requesting it, saying they never would have recommended a death sentence if the shooter was getting a lesser sentence.
“It’s absolutely not fair. You don’t execute someone who did not pull the trigger,” Priscilla Townsend, one of the jurors, said in a telephone interview.
Townsend said they recommended a death sentence after an extremely emotional trial. Townsend said she still believes in the death penalty “for the worst of the worst,” but she said that is not Burton.
In an essay published by AL.com last month, titled, “I sentenced a man to die in Alabama. I was wrong,” Townsend said she has spent decades reflecting on Burton’s trial and its outcome.
“Mr. Burton was not inside the AutoZone at the time of the murder. He was not the shooter, and yet the state sought and secured a death sentence against him anyway. At the time, I did not fully understand what that meant. I do now,” Townsend wrote.
She also recalled in the essay how Burton was painted as the “ring leader” by the prosecution, a description that, she said, “shaped everything” about how she and other jurors saw the trial.
“It shaped how the evidence was viewed, how responsibility was assigned, and how punishment was justified,” the essay read. “I believed it. The jury believed it. I no longer believe it was true.”
Twenty-seven states allow people to be executed for taking part in a felony that led to someone’s death, even if they did not directly kill anyone themselves, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
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