Georgia Executes Kelly Gissendaner

At the trial a year later, it would be revealed that Kelly Gissendaner was having problems in her marriage and she conspired with her lover, Gregory Owen, to murder Douglas.

Gissendaner sobbed as she said she loved her children and apologised to the family of her husband, whom she was convicted of murdering in 1997.

Gissendaner was scheduled for death row on Tuesday at 7 p.m. but her lawyers were able to give her a little more time by filing three appeals to try to spare her life.

The Georgia parole board posthumously pardoned Baker in 2005, six decades after she was executed, declaring in its annual report that “it was a grievous error to deny clemency” to Baker. Thrash denied the request, saying Gissendaner was not likely to prevail in her arguments.

In Georgia, 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.

During Tuesday’s hearing, board chair Terry Barnard said that information included testimony from Gissendaner’s son, Brandon Brookshire. Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher has said he regrets denying her an appeal in 2000 and argued she didn’t deserve to die for her role in the killing. The execution was postponed once more in March when there were questions about the safety of the lethal injection drug, phenobarbitol, because it appeared “cloudy”.

The USA state of Georgia today executed its first woman on death row in 70 years after dismissing a mercy plea from the Pope.

Kelly and Doug Gissendaner’s three adult children had backed their mother’s case. Her execution was announced by corrections officials shortly before 12:30 a.m. local time. Owen testified against Gissendaner in a plea deal that left him with a sentence of life in prison without chance for parole.

In a letter to the board, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano quoted the words of Pope Francis to Congress on September 24, noting that the pontiff had, since the beginning of his ministry, advocated for the global abolition of the death penalty.

Lena Baker, accused of murder and sentenced to death by electrocution in 1945, was the last woman to be executed in Georgia. One archbishop wrote a letter to the parole board asking for a life sentence. Her lawsuit in August 2015, alleging that the two scheduled-then-canceled executions violated her constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment, was also dismissed.

“Tell the Gissendaners I am so so sorry this awesome man lost his life because of me”.

Pope Francis, who concluded a six-day US trip on Sunday and is an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, had urged officials to commute Gissendaner’s death sentence.

Ms. Gissendaner’s guilt in the death of her husband, Douglas, was uncontested, but her lawyers cited her “sincere remorse and acceptance of responsibility” in a filing this month.

“They were able to reconcile and come together”, Bacote said.