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Georgia man set to die for girlfriend's killing
4/22/2008, 8:40 p.m. ET
By HARRY R. WEBER
The Associated Press


ATLANTA (AP) — The state plans next month to execute a man convicted in the 1988 death of his girlfriend in south Georgia.

It would be the state's first execution in nearly a year, and it could be the beginning of a wave of executions over the next several months.

Executions in Georgia were on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court weighed whether the lethal injection method used in many states violates the Constitution. Last week, the high court ruled that the method does not.

William Earl Lynd was sentenced to death for the Dec. 23, 1988, slaying of Ginger Moore, who was shot three times following an argument the couple had.

According to authorities, Lynd shot Moore in the face, then smoked a cigarette. He shot her again after she regained consciousness, then put her in the trunk of a car and later shot her a third time after hearing the victim kicking, authorities said. He then buried her in a shallow grave he dug near Tifton, authorities said.

Lynd later killed 42-year-old Detroit resident Leslie Joan Sharkey, whom he met on the side of a road near Chesapeake, Ohio, authorities said. Sharkey was shot on Christmas Day as she traveled to West Virginia for a family gathering.

"Lynd was able to convince Ms. Sharkey that her car was damaged when he flashed his headlights at her," the Georgia attorney general's office said in a statement Tuesday. "When Ms. Sharkey pulled her car over to the side of the road, Lynd attacked her and shot her three times."

Sharkey was able to drive away and tell police what happened before dying.

After selling the murder weapon, Lynd drove to Florida, where he abandoned the car he was driving. He later turned himself in.

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker said Tuesday that Lynd is scheduled to be executed between May 6 and May 13.

The commissioner of the Department of Corrections will set the specific date later.

The last man put to death in Georgia was John Hightower, who was executed in June 2007 for killing his wife and two stepdaughters in 1987.

Baker has filed a pair of motions with the Georgia Supreme Court asking the justices to lift stays issued in October blocking two other executions. The state court had halted the executions of convicted killers Jack Alderman and Curtis Osborne to give the U.S. Supreme Court time to rule on the lethal injection question, which stemmed from a Kentucky case.

It's unclear when Georgia's top court will act on the motions. The Lynd case was not subject to a state Supreme Court stay.


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