A convicted murderer whose death sentence was initially overturned, apologized for his crimes and begged for forgiveness before he was put to death in Georgia on Tuesday.
“I just want to say I’m very, very sorry for my crimes. I really am sorry. I’m just very sorry for everything. I do ask for forgiveness,” William Sallie told witnesses moments before he was given an injection of barbiturate pentobarbital at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
Salle, 50, also said he often prayed for forgiveness – and accepted a moment of prayer just before the needle went in.
After he was injected with the lethal drugs, Sallie raised his head and peered at the witnesses, according to the Daily Mail. He then placed his head down again and yawned, before shutting his eyes and taking several deep breaths.
His body then twitched about six times as he slightly lifted his shoulders off the gurney while keeping his eyes closed. Moments later, he became still.
Sallie’s time of death was 10:05 p.m., making him the ninth prisoner to be executed in Georgia this year, according to Warden Eric Sellers.
His last meal included a medium-sized sausage and pepperoni pizza, buffalo chicken wings and a large soda.
Sallie was convicted in the March 1990 fatal shooting of his in-law, John Moore, in the rural Bacon County, Georgia.
At the time, he was embroiled in a custody battle with his wife over their young son.
Sallie became violent with his wife, who eventually took their son to live with her parents in south Georgia.
In the early morning hours of March 29, 1990, Sallie broke into his in-law’s house after he cut the phone lines. He stormed inside the master bedroom with a gun and blew away John Moore.
He also shot Moore’s wife, Linda, but she survived the attack.
Sallie then kidnapped his wife and her sister and drove them back to his mobile home, leaving his son behind, CBS News reported.
He later released the two women unharmed and was arrested.
Due to a conflict of interest with his attorney, Sallie’s murder conviction and death sentence were overturned by the court.
But a jury handed a second death sentence during Sallie’s second trial in 2001.