ATLANTA (AP) — A parole board on Tuesday once again denied clemency for the only woman on Georgia’s death row, putting her one step closer to being the first woman executed by the state in seven decades.
Kelly Renee Gissendaner is scheduled to die by injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. Gissendaner, 47, was convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband. She conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles did not give a reason for its denial after it met on Tuesday, saying only that it had carefully considered her request for reconsideration.
Gissendaner was previously scheduled for execution Feb. 25, but that was delayed because of a threat of winter weather. 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 parole board, which is the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, also declined to spare Gissendaner’s life after a clemency hearing in February. Her lawyers asked the board to reconsider its decision before the second execution date, but the board stood by its decision to deny clemency.
Gissendaner’s lawyers last Thursday submitted a second request to reconsider the denial of clemency. The parole board said Monday that its members have thoroughly reviewed that request. The board said the meeting Tuesday would allow it to gather additional information from representatives for Gissendaner.
The board could have let its earlier denial of clemency stand, issued a stay of up to 90 days to further consider the case, or granted clemency and commuted her sentence.
The board did not give a reason for its denial, saying only that it had carefully considered her request for reconsideration.
Pope Francis’ diplomatic representative in the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, on Tuesday sent a letter to the parole board on behalf of the pontiff asking for a commutation of Gissendaner’s sentence “to one that would better express both justice and mercy.” He cited an address the pope made to a joint session of Congress last week in which he called for the abolition of the death penalty.
Two of Gissendaner’s three children already asked the board earlier this year to spare their mother’s life. Her oldest child, Brandon, who had not previously addressed the board, wanted to make a plea for his mother’s life, said Susan Casey, an attorney for Gissendaner.
In the request for reconsideration, Gissendaner’s lawyers cite a statement from former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher, who argues that Gissendaner’s death sentence is not proportionate to her role in the crime. Her lover, Gregory Owen, who did the killing, is serving a life prison sentence and will become eligible for parole in 2022.
Fletcher said he has now decided he was wrong in voting to deny Gissendaner’s appeal in 2000 when he sat on the state Supreme Court, the statement says. 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.
Gissendaner’s lawyers also argued she was a seriously damaged woman has undergone a spiritual transformation in prison and has been a model prisoner who has shown remorse and provided hope to other inmates in their personal struggles. The new request included testimony from several women who were locked up as teens and who said Gissendaner counseled them through moments when they felt scared, lost or on the verge of giving up hope.
Two of her three children, Dakota and Kayla, previously addressed the board and earlier this month released a video pleading for their mother’s life to be spared. They detailed their own journeys to forgiving her and said they would suffer terribly from having a second parent taken from them.
Douglas Gissendaner’s family said in a statement Monday that he is the victim and that Kelly Gissendaner received an appropriate sentence.
“As the murderer, she’s been given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded to Doug who, again, is the victim here,” the statement says. “She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life.”
Kelly Gissendaner repeatedly pushed Owen in late 1996 to kill her husband rather than just divorcing him as Owen suggested, prosecutors have said. Acting on her instructions, Owen ambushed Douglas Gissendaner at Gissendaner’s home, forced him to drive to a remote area and stabbed him multiple times, prosecutors said.
Investigators looking into the killing zeroed in on Owen once they learned of his affair with Kelly Gissendaner. He initially denied involvement but eventually confessed and implicated Kelly Gissendaner.
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Photo: Demonstrators hold signs during a rally in Atlanta on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015 to ask the Board of Pardons and Paroles to change the execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner to life in prison. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
