God forgives our sins no matter how grave, i don't see why this woman should have been executed after turning a new leaf 18 years after the crime plus several pleas from around the world even from the office of Pope Francis.
After a five-hour delay, Georgia death row inmate Kelly Gissendaner was executed early Wednesday morning for her role in the killing of her husband.
Gissendaner was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Tuesday, but her lawyers filed appeals to state and federal courts in her final hours to try to spare her life.
Her children had to make a heart-wrenching choice Tuesday: go see their mother one last time, or make a final appeal in front of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.
"We chose to try and save her life, and they still denied us," daughter Kayla Gissendaner said outside the state's execution facility in Jackson.
Even a recent letter on behalf of the Pope wasn't enough to sway the parole board.
So Gissendaner's legal team filed three appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court -- all of which were denied.
When Gissendaner finally walked to the execution chamber after midnight, she saw the witnesses through a window and began sobbing, witness Jeff Hullinger of WXIA-TV said.
She then made a final statement "apologizing to an amazing man that lost his life because of her," Hullinger said.
Gissendaner was convicted of murder for persuading her lover to kill her husband in 1997. She became Georgia's first female prisoner to be executed in 70 years.
As Gissendaner was being executed, the Gwinnett Daily Post reported, she sang "Amazing Grace."
While waiting for an answer from the board, a representative for Pope Francis sent a letter saying that the Pope wanted the board to spare Gissendaner's life.
"While not wishing to minimize the gravity of the crime for which Ms. Gissendaner has been convicted, and while sympathizing with the victims, I nonetheless implore you, in consideration of the reasons that have been presented to your Board, to commute the sentence to one that would better express both justice and mercy," the letter read.
It wasn't clear whether the board saw the Vatican representative's letter. A spokesman for the board declined to comment, saying what happens inside the hearings is private.
This isn't the only U.S. case to draw the attention of Francis, who called for an end to the death penalty when he spoke to Congress last week.
His representative has also sent a letter to Oklahoma's governor, asking her to commute the death sentence for Richard Glossip, who's scheduled to be executed there Wednesday.
The Pope and the future of the death penalty
The death row cases of Gissendaner and Glossip have something in common: Neither of the convicted murderers actually killed the victim.
In Glossip's case, the man who bludgeoned the victim to death testified that Glossip had hired him for the murder. That killer is serving a life sentence.
The family of Gissendaner's slain husband, Douglas, said they had faith in the legal system.
"Kelly planned and executed Doug's murder. She targeted him and his death was intentional. Kelly chose to have her day in court and after hearing the facts of this case, a jury of her peers sentenced her to death," the statement read in part.
"As the murderer, she's been given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded to Doug, who, again, is the victim here," it said. "She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life. His life was not hers to take."
An unlikely friendship blossoms between a killer and a scholar.
Credit:CNN
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