Nitrogen Gas Execution

Opponents of capital punishment in the U.S. are talking “next steps” after what Governor Kay Ivey did this week. The Governor commuted the death sentence of Charles Burton. He’ll remain in prison without the chance of parole. Burton didn’t shoot the victim during a 1991 robbery.

Governor Kay Ivey is commuting the sentence of Alabama death row inmate Charles “Sonny” Burton. He had spent the last thirty years awaiting execution for the 1991 killing of Doug Battle at a Talladega AutoZone store. Burton’s case attracted national attention since he did not pull the trigger. Prosecutors charged him under what’s known as felony murder. That law makes a convicted offender as guilty as the person who committed the killing.

Charles Burton has spent 30 years on death row at William C. Holman Correctional Facility, the site of the state's execution chamber.Burton's death sentence is the result of a legal doctrine known as felony murder, which allows prosecutors to treat anyone involved in certain felonies equally responsible for a killing that occurs during the crime.

An Alabama man convicted of helping to burn a man alive in 1993 over a $200 drug debt was executed by nitrogen gas on Thursday. Anthony Boyd, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. at William C. Holman Correctional Facility, authorities said.

An Alabama death row inmate set to die this week asked the state’s governor to meet with him “before an innocent man is executed.” Anthony Boyd, 53, is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening by nitrogen gas at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility. A jury convicted Boyd of capital murder for the 1993 burning death of Gregory Huguley in Talladega County.

Thirty-five men have died by court-ordered executions in the U.S. so far this year, including one early Friday, with seven others scheduled to be put to death later this month. The increase in executions is largely being driven by four states — Alabama, Florida, Texas, and South Carolina — that have carried out 76% of this year's court-ordered killings.

A federal judge refused to stop an upcoming nitrogen gas execution in Alabama saying the inmate was unlikely to prevail on claims that the method, which has been used multiple times, is unconstitutionally cruel. Chief U.S District Judge Emily Marks declined a request from Anthony Boyd to block his scheduled October 23rd execution.

An Alabama man convicted of killing a woman during a 1997 gas station robbery was put to death Thursday after apologizing to his victim's family and pleas from the woman's son to spare his life.

Alabama is preparing to execute a man convicted of killing a woman during a 1997 gas station robbery in what will be the nation's latest execution carried out with nitrogen gas. It is one of two executions scheduled Thursday in the United States. Texas plans to carry out a lethal injection on the same evening.

Alabama is scheduled to execute Geoffrey West on Thursday for the 1997 murder of Margaret Berry. Berry was killed during a gas station robbery. Berry's son has asked the state to not execute West and let him serve life in prison.