Clemency Denied for Georgia's Only Woman on Death Row

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Update, 3 p.m.

The Georgia Department of Corrections has postponed the scheduled execution of condemned murderer Kelly Renee Gissendaner until next week. The new time and date is 7 p.m. Monday, March 2 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

The department did not give a reason for the postponement in a news release.

The execution had been scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Gissendaner, the lone woman on death row in Georgia, was convicted in the 1997 Gwinnett County murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner.

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Clemency has been denied for condemned murderer Kelly Renee Gissendaner, the only woman on death row in Georgia, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday night.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to deny the Auburn, Ga., woman’s request for mercy after a Tuesday clemency hearing in Atlanta, the board announced.

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Gissendaner, who was convicted in the 1997 Gwinnett County murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

If executed, she would be the first woman put to death in Georgia in 70 years.

According to the news release:

In reaching its decision, the Board thoroughly reviewed all information and documents pertaining to the case. In addition to hearing testimony during the meeting on Tuesday, the Board, prior to the meeting, had thoroughly reviewed the parole case file on the inmate which includes the circumstances of the death penalty case, the inmate’s criminal history, and a comprehensive history of the inmate’s life.

Gissendaner was convicted in 1998 for planning the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner In Gwinnett County. His body was found in a wooded area off near Dacula; he was beaten and stabbed to death by Kelly Gissendaner’s boyfriend, Gregory Owen. Owen testified against Gissendaner to avoid the death penalty.

>>Check out this fascinating look at the crime and Gissendaner’s troubled past by the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Authorities said Douglas Gissendaner, a Desert Storm veteran, was beaten and stabbed to death in an area off Luke Edwards Road near Dacula. The body was found two weeks later.

MORE INFO

(from State Board of Pardons and Paroles)

• Gissendaner case summary from Georgia Attorney General
• Kelly Gissendaner clemency application