New clemency hearing for Ga. female death row inmate

Georgia’s State Board of Pardons and Paroles will meet Tuesday morning to decide whether to grant her clemency.

The execution of 47-year-old Kelly Gissendaner, who was convicted and sentenced to die for orchestrating the 1997 murder of her husband, will proceed as scheduled at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Her attorney, Susan Casey, revealed that Gissendaner’s eldest son, Brandon, asked if he could speak with the board. Gissendaner’s two other children addressed the board in February.

The hearing, which began at 11 a.m. ET, was closed to media.

“Please be assured of my prayers as you consider this request by Pope Francis for what I believe would be a just act of clemency”, the Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano wrote. He negotiated a plea deal with prosecutors and was granted a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years. She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life. He later issued an order denying her request to reconsider his dismissal of her case.

Kelly planned and executed Doug’s murder. “She received the death penalty, which is very disproportionate”. 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.

There had been a big push to keep her from being executed.

Gissendaner was convicted of malice murder in 1998.

The daughter has said her mother has changed over the past 18 years. “I am profoundly moved by the testimony of former and current prisoners, prison guards and officials, prison volunteers, and chaplains who have borne witness to the goodwill, hope, and example that she has provided for dozens of inmates in desperate need”, said Fletcher in a statement released Monday.

The board has three options after the meeting, which includes commuting her sentence to life in prison.

“While incarcerated, she has been a pastoral presence to many, teaching, preaching and living a life of objective”, the petition states. 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 botched procedures forced 32 states to reexamine their capital punishment methods, as lawmakers scrambled to find alternative ways to kill death row inmates.

The shortage prompted states to use experimental drug cocktails that resulted in a series of highly publicized executions in 2014 involving largely untested toxins. “The board has reached its decision based on how each individual board member views the case”.

Kayla says that forgiving her mother is the best way to honor her father and has since come to love and need Kelly.

“That’s a really hard question because I’m aware of how hard this has been” for them, Zappa answered. We pray that his memory will bring a smile to the faces of all that knew him and even those who didn’t. I pray for them.