Kelly Gissendaner is executed in Georgia

She had been convicted of pushing her lover to kill her husband Douglas Gissendaner in February 1997. She also addressed her lawyer, Susan Casey, and a pastor, Sally Purvis, who were among the witnesses.

She was given a lethal injection of phenobarbital and passed away singing hymns like “Amazing Grace“.

“And I love you Sally”.

Separately, a Fulton County judge denied a motion to halt the execution on grounds prison guards and administrators were not allowed to testify for clemency on Gissendaner’s behalf, according to The Journal-Constitution.

“We asked the board for an additional 24 hours so they could visit their mother”, she said.

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

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.

Michael Mears, an associate professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School who worked on one of Gissendaner’s early appeals, said he would be surprised if the board commuted the sentence.

Gissendaner’s execution was scheduled for 7 pm on Tuesday. Pope Francis also sent a letter to the state saying he wanted the board to spare her life. “And her oldest son finally stood up for her on her final day at the clemency hearing”. Then, at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night, a divided Supreme Court denied a request to stay her execution. Unlike the rather large “last meal” she requested before her March execution date, she has asked for chips and cheese dip, fajita nachos and a diet frosted lemonade.

It was the third try for Georgia, which reportedly had to cancel previous attempts to execute Gissendaner due to inclement weather and, later, “cloudy” lethal injection drugs. It cited the pope’s speech to Congress, in which Francis said “every life is sacred”, and that “society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes”.

The parole board is the only state entity that can grant clemency.

Overnight, Georgia executed a woman who had been on death row for nearly two decades. The 47-year-old Gissendaner was the state’s only female on death row, and the first to be executed by the state since 1945. Monday, Doug Gissenaner’s family issued a statement urging people to focus on the victim in this case in the hours leading up to the execution. As the murderer, she’s been given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded to Doug…

‘The outcome illustrates one of the fundamental flaws with the death penalty – it’s applied arbitrarily, ‘ said Steven Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty global, which is among a number of groups that called for her sentence to be commuted to life in prison.