(ICYMI) New Execution Date Set for GA Woman on Death Row

A new execution order has been filed for Georgia’s only woman on death row, according to the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office.

Kelly Renee Gissendaner, sentenced to death for masterminding the 1997 murder of her husband Douglas in Gwinnett County, has had two previous scheduled executions postponed -- in February due to a winter storm, and in March, when authorities found a cloudy appearance in the drugthat was to be used for the lethal injection.

According to the warrant signed in Gwinnett Superior Court on Friday, Gissendaner is ordered to be executed between noon Sept. 29 and noon Oct. 6. The Georgia Department of Corrections will determine the exact time and day.

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

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Gissendaner, of Auburn, Ga., was convicted of plotting the murder of her husband, Douglas, near Dacula in 1997.

She was found guilty of convincing her boyfriend Gregory Owen to murder Douglas Gissendaner on Feb. 7, 1997, then went to lengths to deny her involvement, prosecutors said. Owen, who was sentenced to life in prison, avoided the death penalty by helping prosecutors in the case against Gissendaner.

• See a detailed account of the case on the Georgia Attorney General’s Office website

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

Owen confessed to the crime on Feb. 24 and implicated Gissendaner, who was arrested the next day.

Gissendaner was convicted by jury trial on Nov. 18, 1998.

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Photo: Kelly Gissendaner; Georgia Dept. of Corrections

Gissendaner Execution Order 09-18-2015 (1)