Clemency Hearing Set for Auburn Woman on Death Row

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The State Board of Pardons and Paroles have scheduled a clemency hearing for Kelly Renee Gissendaner, Georgia’s only woman on death row.

Gissendaner, of Auburn, is scheduled to die of lethal injection on Feb. 25 for the 1997 murder of her husband Douglas Gissendaner.

The Board said in a news release that a clemency hearing is set for 9 a.m. Feb. 24.

• Murder Convict Could Be First Woman Executed in Ga. in 70 Years

Gissendaner was convicted of malice murder in 1998 and sentenced to death for conspiring with her boyfriend Greg Owen to kill her husband.

Owen beat and stabbed Douglas Gissendaner in a wooded are off Luke Edwards Road near Dacula on Feb. 7, 1997. He was sentenced to life in prison, avoiding the death penalty by testifying against Gissendaner.

Gissendaner’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied Oct. 6, 2014, the Board said in the news release.

If executed, Gissendaner would be the first woman put to death in Georgia since 1945.

The Board of Pardons and Paroles also included the following in its news statement:

In Georgia, the Parole Board has the sole constitutional authority to commute, or reduce, a death sentence to life with the possibility of parole or to life without the possibility of parole. Only after an inmate appears to have exhausted all appeals and other judicial avenues of relief will the Parole Board consider granting a commutation to a death-sentenced inmate. The Board maintains a comprehensive file on every death-sentenced inmate. The file includes the circumstances of the offense, the inmate’s criminal history and a comprehensive history of the life of the condemned inmate. Board Members will complete a thorough review of this material prior to hearing from the inmate’s representatives on February 24, 2015.