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Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has commuted the death sentence of an inmate two days before his execution, saying it would be “unjust” to take his life when he wasn’t even the triggerman in a robbery gone bad.

The Republican governor commuted the death sentence of 75-year-old Charles Lee “Sonny” Burton to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Tuesday, March 10.

Burton had been set for execution on Thursday, March 12, for the death of Doug Battle, a customer killed during a robbery of an AutoZone in Talladega, Alabama, on Aug. 16, 1991.

Burton and five other men robbed the store and its customers that day. But only one of the robbers, a man named Derrick DeBruce, decided to shoot Battle. Burton had already left the building and had no idea Battle had been shot.

While Burton got the death penalty, DeBruce ultimately was sentenced to life in prison.

“Charles Burton did not shoot the victim, did not direct the triggerman to shoot the victim and had already left the store by the time the shooting occurred,” Ivey said in a statement to USA TODAY on Tuesday, March 10. “Yet Mr. Burton was set to be executed while DeBruce was allowed to live out his life in prison.”

She continued: “I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr. Burton under such disparate circumstances. I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not.”

Like many other states, Alabama law allows a defendant who participated in a felony such as robbery to be convicted of murder, even if they didn’t do any killing themselves. Burton was convicted under that law.

Pressure had been building on Ivey as the execution neared.

Battle’s daughter wrote an op-ed in December condemning Burton’s execution for her father’s murder. And on Monday, March 9, supporters carrying signs that read “Save Sonny” gathered at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery to deliver a petition asking Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to grant clemency to Burton. The petition had more than 67,000 signatures.

“Putting a man to death who not only did not kill, but also did not encourage, participate in, nor even witness the shooting, and doing so after the shooter received a life sentence, indeed represents an injustice,” Burton’s attorneys said in a clemency petition to Ivey in the weeks leading up to the execution. “As the chief law enforcement officer of the State of Alabama, it is not only within your power, it is your duty to correct such injustices.”

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office had been arguing for the execution to proceed, saying in a U.S. Supreme Court filing that Burton was the “ringleader” of the six men who robbed the AutoZone that day in Talladega and dismissed his fight for a reprieve as delay tactics.

“A stay or any other injunctive relief that might delay Burton’s execution would undermine the powerful interest − shared by the State, the public, and the victims of Burton’s crime − in the timely enforcement of his sentence,” the office said. “An unpunished murder is an intrinsic and ongoing harm to those interests and to the rule of law.”