Kelly Renee Gissendaner's Last Words: 'Amazing Grace,' Apologies

Despite last-minute pleas for clemency, Georgia executed Kelly Renee Gissendaner early Wednesday morning for the 1997 murder of her husband.

Gissendaner, Georgia’s only woman on death row, died by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, according to media reports.

Time of death was 12:21 a.m. Wednesday, more than five hours after the execution was scheduled.

• LISTEN: Audio of Kelly Renee Gissendaner’s final words (WSB-TV link)

Gissendaner is the first woman put to death in Georgia in 70 years, and the 35th inmate overall to die by lethal injection.

The sentence was carried out after lawyers failed to get a stay of execution via numerous court filings. The Associated Press reported a third appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Georgia Supreme Court also denied clemency on Tuesday, according to reports.

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

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

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The execution ended a long day of appeals and denials for Gissendaner.

Earlier Tuesday, amid pleas for mercy, including from Pope Francis, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles met to re-examine the Gissendanner case but voted to uphold the sentence.

“The Parole Board received a request from the representatives of Kelly Renee Gissendaner on Thursday, September 24, 2015, asking the Board reconsider its decision to deny clemency in the case,” the Board said in a Tuesday afternoon statement. “After carefully considering the request for reconsideration, and meeting with Gissendaner’s representatives again today, the Board has voted to let the decision of February 25, 2015, denying clemency stand.”

In their request for clemency, Gissendaner’s lawyers argued her death sentence was “disproportionate” to her role in the crime. Gissendaner was not present during the murder and Georgia has not executed a ”non-trigger” inmate since the state brought back the death penalty in 1976, the filing said.

Gissendaner was described as a reformed woman who found God, re-connected with her children and ministered to inmates.

• Click here to see “Request for Reconsideration Application” filed by Gissendaner’s lawyers on Sept. 24.

Friends and supporters also begged the state for clemency in the days leading up to the scheduled execution. On Tuesday, a letter on behalf of the Pope asked the board for mercy and an end to death penalties, ABC reported.

Supporters waited outside the prison throughout the evening, according to reports. Around 9 p.m., Gissendaner’s daughter Kayla addressed the crowd, thanking them for their encouragement. See raw video from WSB below.

The execution had been postponed two times previously -- in February due to a winter storm, and in March, when authorities found a cloudy appearance in the drug that was to be used for the lethal injection.

Gissendaner received the death sentence for her involvement in the murder of Douglas Gissendaner, a Desert Storm veteran whose body was found beaten and stabbed in a wooded area off Luke Edwards Road near Dacula.

Prosecutors said Gissendaner convinced Owen to carry out the murder, helped cover up the crime by setting her husband’s car on fire, then went to lengths to deny her involvement, including saying Owen threatened her life if she told.

Photo: Kelly Gissendaner; Georgia Dept. of Corrections

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