Woman on Death Row: Kelly Gissendaner Awaits Clemency Decision

Condemned murderer Kelly Renee Gissendaner is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday night, pending the results of a Tuesday clemency hearing in front of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.

If executed, the Auburn, Ga. woman would be the first woman put to death in the state of Georgia in 70 years. She is currently the only woman on death row in Georgia.

MORE INFO

(from State Board of Pardons and Paroles)

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

The execution is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

A clemency hearing with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles was scheduled Tuesday in Atlanta. The parole board marked Gissendaner’s last chance to avoid execution.

More than 20 people were expected to ask the board to spare her life, the Gwinnett Daily Post reported. Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter was also expected to address the board and argue against clemency.

The board’s decision was not known late Tuesday afternoon.

RELATED

• Clemency Hearing Set for Auburn Woman on Death Row
• Murder Convict Could Be First Woman Executed in Ga. in 70 Years

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 Luke Edwards Road 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 by Owen in a wooded area off Luke Edwards Road near Dacula. The body was found two weeks later.