Georgia woman’s execution is postponed again

BY A STAFF WRITER

ATLANTA, GA — The only woman on death row in Georgia, who was to be executed on Monday (March 2) for her husband’s 1997 murder, got a fresh lease of life as the state of Georgia indefinitely delayed her after officials noticed that the drug to be used for a lethal injection had become ‘cloudy.’

Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, whose appeal is also being considered by the US Supreme Court, was scheduled to die by injection of pentobarbital at 7pm local time in the state prison.

However, the pentobarbital was sent to an independent lab to check its potency and the test came back at an acceptable level, but during subsequent checks it appeared cloudy, Georgia department of corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said.

Prosecutors said she plotted with her boyfriend, Gregory Owen, to kill her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, who was stabbed to death in a desolate area in suburban Atlanta after being abducted from his home.

Owen confessed to carrying out the February 7, 1997, murder and implicated Kelly. He is serving a life sentence.

Gissendaner’s execution by injection was reset for March 2 night after a winter storm prompted state officials to postpone it last week.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday afternoon turned down Gissendaner’s request for a stay of execution.

Gissendaner’s attorneys asked the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider its decision last week to deny her request to commute the sentence from death to life without parole.

In their clemency petition to the parole board, Gissendaner’s lawyers said the death row inmate has “accepted responsibility” for her actions that led to the death of her husband and has “shown a commitment to seeking redemption through spiritual growth and serving others.”

The Georgia state last executed a woman on March 5, 1945. Lena Baker died in the electric chair but was granted a pardon in 2005 after officials said she should have been given clemency for killing her abusive employer in self-defense.