Willie Doyle, 55, was convicted and sentenced in the robbery, rape and murder of a 67-year-old Savannah woman back in 1977.
Records show Doyle, with several others, robbed the woman of $1.50, then sexually assaulted her and murdered her. However, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles officials have notified the District Attorney’s Office in Chatham County that they plan to parole Doyle.
Doyle was planned to be released on December 21, but after District Attorney Meg Heap, SCMPD and Savannah City Council members wrote a letter objecting that release, the board halted the parole.
The board did reconsider the request of the DA’s office and replied on January 4, 2016 in a letter.
“Based on your objection, his case was resubmitted to the board for reconsideration,” said Thurman Henderson, the board chairman. “After careful review, the Board has decided to proceed with its previous decision to parole inmate Willie Doyle.”
The board cited numerous reasons including the fact Doyle had served 38 years of his sentence,
the improvement that they say Doyle has shown over the past decade and that Doyle has not had any disciplinary action in the past two years. They also said that Doyle had completed his work-release program.
However, Heap completely disagrees.
“I would say that their statement is simply not true. He has had infractions and a disciplinary action that he is not obeying the people that are put there to supervise him. What do we expect when we let him out?” asked Heap. “It is just so disappointing because this is not a model citizen. This person had 600 pages of disciplinary reports while in prison. Some actions on all of them.”