Execution date set for convicted murderer William C. Sallie

ATLANTA — An execution date of Dec. 6 has been set for William C. Sallie, about 50, who was convicted of the 1990 murder of his father-in-law, John Moore, in Bacon County, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office said.

Carr’s office said Bacon County Superior Court on Thursday set an execution window of Dec. 6-13 for Sallie, who also was convicted on kidnapping and firearms charges. The Department of Corrections set the execution for 7 p.m. Dec. 6.

According to a summary from the Georgia Supreme Court, Sallie’s wife, Robin, was seeking a divorce and took their then 2-year-old son, Ryan, with her to the Bacon County home of her parents, John and Linda Moore, after the Sallies separated in December 1989. Sallie abducted Ryan and took him to his home in Illinois, but an Illinois court ordered the child returned to his wife in Georgia.

Sallie rented a mobile home in Liberty County in March 1990 and obtained a 9mm pistol. Dressed in camo, he tore the Moores’ phone wires and broke in after the family was asleep. He shot the Moores in their bedroom multiple times. John Moore fell to the floor and died.

Sallie bound Linda Moore and 9-year-old son Justin Moore with handcuffs to a bed rail, then binded Robin Sallie and her sister, April Moore, 17, with handcuffs and duct tape. He abducted the sisters and raped them at his mobile home.

Linda and Justin Moore got free and called police from a neighbor’s house. Sallie released the two kidnapping victims the next day, asking them not to press charges. He was soon arrested and the murder weapon was found in his home.

Sallie was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, burglary, aggravated assault, kidnapping with bodily injury (two counts) and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and sentenced to death. The convictions and death sentence were reversed by the state Supreme Court because one of his trial attorneys had a conflict of interest. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Sallie’s 2001 convictions and death sentence in 2003, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied Sallie’s request to appeal that year.

He is being held at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. Sallie would be the ninth prisoner executed in Georgia this year.