Charles Lee “Sonny” Burton is set to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia on March 12, one week before the end of Ramadan.
“What really hurts me is the governor set my date during Ramadan,” Burton told
AL.com. “I was sad and disappointed but I’d like to believe that she wasn’t aware that March 12 is during Ramadan. I’d like to think she didn’t know because she’s a Christian woman.”
Burton was one of six men convicted for the murder of Doug Battle during a robbery at an AutoZone store in Talladega. Burton and a co-defendant, who was the triggerman, were both sentenced to death but the co-defendant was later resentenced to life without parole.
Three years before the 1991 murder and Burton’s arrest, his wife was stabbed to death by another man. Burton said her death made him “so angry.” While on death row, he converted to Islam and found a new life in his faith.
“They snatched my future from me,” he said. “I had so much anger in me that I put God on the back burner and carried that anger a...