Clemency denied for Kelly Gissendaner; Catholic church weighs in

Kelly Gissendaner died by lethal injection early Wednesday morning at prison facility outside the capital city, Atlanta.

Prosecutors said Kelly Gissendaner conspired with her lover, Gregory Owen, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death.

Shortly before 8:30 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court said it had denied a request to stay her execution.

Various courts, including the US Supreme Court denied efforts Tuesday to stop her execution.

Even in Gissendaner’s last minutes, her children opted to spend the time pleading with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles – all to no avail.

The archbishop wrote that, while not wishing to minimise the gravity of the crime, he implored the board “to commute the sentence to one that would better express both justice and mercy”.

But the family of Doug Gissendaner said Kelly Gissendaner got the sentence she deserved.

“In the last 18 years, our mission has been to seek justice for Doug’s murder and to keep his memory alive”.

“She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life”, they said.

Gissendaner’s implementation symbols the first defamatory achieved against a woman in Georgia in 70 years.

CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield asked Zappa what her “words of comfort” would be to the family of Doug Gissendaner.

Gissendaner was put to death after the federal courts refused to intercede and the state panel turned down an application for clemency that drew the support of Pope Francis. The reason is because her boyfriend pleaded guilty and “took responsibility” for the murder, which allowed for a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

The constitutionality of lethal injection drugs has made headlines in recent years and European manufacturers – such as Denmark-based Lundbeck, which manufactures pentobarbital – banned US prisons from using their drugs in executions in 2013. But after many court at appeals and hearings before Georgia’s Parole Board, her execution went forward as scheduled.

A woman has been executed in the USA state of Georgia despite a number of last-ditch appeals, including one by Pope Francis, to try to block her execution.

“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 letter said.

Owen, who carried out the fatal stabbing, is serving a life sentence after striking a plea bargain.

Two of Gissendaner’s three children had previously addressed the board, but her oldest son hadn’t. Gissendaner was convicted of convincing her lover to murder her husband, after she rejected a plea deal that would have spared her life. That fantastic man lost his life because of me and if I could take it back, if this would change it, I would have done it a long time ago.