After several last ditch effort to keep their client alive, Georgia has executed its only female death row inmate.
Kelly Renee Gissendaner died by lethal injection of pentobarbital today,
Wednesday at 12:21 a.m. at the state prison in Jackson. She was
convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband. She
conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death.
Gissendaner was the first woman executed in the state in 70 years.
The United States Supreme court denied Gissendaner, 47, three stays of execution on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court of Georgia also denied her a stay of execution Tuesday
and the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to grant her
clemency after it met on earlier on Tuesday to consider new testimony
from supporters. The board didn't give a reason for the denial, but said
it had carefully considered her request for reconsideration.
Gissendaner was previously scheduled for execution Feb. 25, but that was
delayed because of a threat of winter weather. Her execution was reset
for March 2, but corrections officials postponed that execution "out of
an abundance of caution" because the execution drug appeared "cloudy."
The parole board, which is the only entity in Georgia authorized to
commute a death sentence, also declined to spare Gissendaner's life
after a clemency hearing in February. Her lawyers asked the board to
reconsider its decision before the second execution date, but the board
stood by its decision to deny clemency.
Gissendaner's lawyers last Thursday submitted a second request to
reconsider the denial of clemency, and the board agreed to review new
documents and hear from her representatives.
Pope Francis' diplomatic representative in the U.S., Archbishop Carlo
Maria Vigano, on Tuesday sent a letter to the parole board on behalf of
the pontiff asking for a commutation of Gissendaner's sentence "to one
that would better express both justice and mercy." He cited an address
the pope made to a joint session of Congress last week in which he
called for the abolition of the death penalty.
Two of Gissendaner's three children already asked the board earlier this
year to spare their mother's life. Her oldest child, Brandon, who had
not previously addressed the board, wanted to make a plea for his
mother's life, said Susan Casey, an attorney for Gissendaner.
In the request for reconsideration, Gissendaner's lawyers cited a
statement from former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman
Fletcher, who argued Gissendaner's death sentence is not proportionate
to her role in the crime. Her lover, Gregory Owen, who did the killing,
is serving a life prison sentence and will become eligible for parole in
2022.
Fletcher said he has now decided he was wrong in his decision to deny
Gissendaner's appeal in 2000 when he sat on the state Supreme Court, the
statement says. He also notes that Georgia hasn't executed a person who
didn't actually carry out a killing since the U.S. Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Gissendaner's lawyers also argued she was a seriously damaged woman who
has undergone a spiritual transformation in prison and has been a model
prisoner who has shown remorse and provided hope to other inmates in
their personal struggles. The new request included testimony from
several women who were locked up as teens and who said Gissendaner
counseled them through moments when they felt scared, lost or on the
verge of giving up hope.
Two of her three children, Dakota and Kayla, previously addressed the
board and earlier this month released a video pleading for their
mother's life to be spared. They detailed their own journeys to
forgiving her and said they would suffer terribly from having a second
parent taken from them.
Douglas Gissendaner's family said in a statement Monday that he is the
victim and that Kelly Gissendaner received an appropriate sentence.
"As the murderer, she's been given more rights and opportunity over the
last 18 years than she ever afforded to Doug who, again, is the victim
here," the statement says. "She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no
choices, nor the opportunity to live his life."
Kelly Gissendaner repeatedly pushed Owen in late 1996 to kill her
husband rather than just divorcing him as Owen suggested, prosecutors
have said. Acting on her instructions, Owen ambushed Douglas Gissendaner
at Gissendaner's home, forced him to drive to a remote area and stabbed
him multiple times, prosecutors said.
Investigators looking into the killing zeroed in on Owen once they
learned of his affair with Kelly Gissendaner. He initially denied
involvement but eventually confessed and implicated Kelly Gissendaner.
Posts
