Pleas for Mercy Asked for Condemned Woman on Death Row

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As the hours approach the scheduled court-ordered execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner, there have been pleas around Atlanta for mercy.

Gissendaner, 46, the only woman on death row in Georgia, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Monday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. If executed, she would be the first woman put to death in Georgia in 70 years.

MORE INFO

• Gissendaner case summary from Georgia Attorney General
• Kelly Gissendaner clemency application

Gissendaner, of Auburn, was convicted of plotting the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, who was stabbed and beaten by her boyfriend in a wooded area off a Dacula-area road in 1997.

After the State Board of Pardons and Parole denied her request for clemency last week, it seems only a miracle can prevent the execution.

RELATED

• Clemency Hearing Set for Auburn Woman on Death Row
• Murder Convict Could Be First Woman Executed in Ga. in 70 Years
• Clemency Denied for Georgia’s Only Woman on Death Row

A prayer vigil for Gissendaner was held Sunday night at Emory University’s William R. Cannon Chapel, featuring several speakers who testified at her clemency hearing last week.

More than 200 people attended the vigil, WSB-TV reported.

The TV station said a group of clergy collected more than 20,000 signatures asking to spare Gissendaner’s life, and plans to present the petition to Gov. Nathan Deal on Monday.

Many metro Atlanta clergy also have written and signed a letter opposing the death penalty and citing Gissendaner’s “own personal transformation” as she graduated Emory’s Chandler School of Theology program for incarcerated women.

• The full text of the letter can be found here.

The Gwinnett Daily Post reported attorneys for Gissendaner have filed arguments to halt the execution, including claims that the state uses questionable lethal-injection methods, and that the punishment is too harsh because Gissendaner convinced her boyfriend, Greg Owen, to carry out the crime and didn’t physically do it herself. Owen, who testified for the prosecution, is serving a life sentence.

“Killing her is not going to bring anything back, It’s not going to unto what’s been done,” Rev. Cathy Zappa of Atlanta said during Sunday’s vigil.