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Kelly Gissendaner pleaded guilty to the murder of her husband.
Kelly Gissendaner’s last meal request included two cheeseburgers, ice cream, popcorn and salad. Photograph: Bita Honarvar/AP
Kelly Gissendaner’s last meal request included two cheeseburgers, ice cream, popcorn and salad. Photograph: Bita Honarvar/AP

Georgia death row woman in last-ditch bid for clemency as execution looms

This article is more than 9 years old

Kelly Gissendaner, 46, was convicted of murdering her husband in 1997 and is set to be the first woman executed in Georgia since 1945

Kelly Gissendaner will on Monday night become the first woman to be executed in Georgia in almost 70 years – subject to a last-ditch application for clemency.

Gissendaner, 46, was found guilty in 1998 of recruiting her lover to kill her husband Doug. After 16 years on death row, she was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on 25 February, but a winter storm forced a delay.

Prosecutors said Gissendaner, a mother of three, wanted her husband dead so she could profit from two life insurance policies and the couple’s $84,000 house. Her husband’s body went undiscovered in the woods for nearly two weeks in February 1997.

Gregory Owen, Gissendaner’s boyfriend, testified against her as part of a plea bargain that landed him a life sentence but spared him the death penalty. Owen will be eligible for parole in eight years’ time, attorneys said.

In the days following the storm delay, Gissendaner’s attorneys filed another application for clemency, asking the parole board to delay her execution for 90 days in order to reconsider. Her attorneys argue that testimony from department of corrections employees would change the parole board’s opinion of Gissendaner, who they say has “shown a commitment to seeking redemption through spiritual growth and serving others”.

“This is an exceptional case requiring exceptional and immediate action,” attorney Susan Casey said in a statement emailed to the Guardian. “Kelly’s case cries out for the mercy power vested in the board.”

Attorneys also argued that although Georgia allows department of corrections employees to speak to attorneys about death-row inmates, in practice the rule is muddled at best. For example, the warden of Lee Arrendale state prison, where Gissendaner was housed, sent out a memo barring staff from speaking to anyone about the case.

“Under no circumstances are you to discuss this with people outside this institution,” wrote warden Kathleen Kennedy. “Staff should also be careful what is said to other inmates and personal feelings are to be suppressed.”

If Gissendaner’s execution goes through, she could be the first of two inmates executed in as many weeks. Georgia has scheduled the execution of Brian Keith Terrell for 10 March at 7pm in Jackson.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1973, Georgia has executed 57 men, 35 by lethal injection. There are 81 men on death row in Georgia and one woman.

Gissendaner’s last meal request was for lemonade, two cheeseburgers, two large orders of french fries, cornbread and a side of buttermilk, cherry vanilla ice cream, popcorn, and a salad with boiled eggs, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, carrots, cheese and buttermilk dressing.

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