Kelly Gissendaner

Kelly Renée Gissendaner (née Brookshire; March 8, 1968 – September 30, 2015) was an American woman who was executed by the U.S. state of Georgia. Gissendaner had been convicted of orchestrating the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner (December 14, 1966 – February 7, 1997). At the time of the murder, Gissendaner was 28, and her husband was 30. After her conviction, and until her execution, Gissendaner was the only woman on death row in Georgia.

According to sworn affidavits by friends and family members, she was molested by her stepfather and other men during her childhood and adolescence.

Kelly married Douglas Gissendaner for the first time on September 2, 1989.

Kelly, in addition to her daughter with Douglas, had two sons. Douglas was the stepfather to her sons. Owen accepted the offer while Gissendaner rejected it and went on trial. During the trial, Gissendaner was discovered to have threatened witnesses and also plotted to pay a witness to commit perjury.

Prison

Ministry After being sentenced to death, Gissendaner was imprisoned at Metro State Prison until it was closed in 2011. She was then transferred to Arrendale State Prison. While in prison, Gissendaner had a conversion to Christianity. The women released a video detailing the impact Gissendaner had on their lives.

During theology studies, she became a student of Christian thinkers like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rowan Williams. Gissendaner's clemency application to the Board of Pardons included support from a number of correctional officers whom she had met while in prison. The Georgia Republican Party's general counsel and Republican Bob Barr also supported clemency.

The board again declined to commute her sentence on September 29, 2015. (Georgia is one of three US states in which the governor is not empowered to grant clemency to the condemned.)

Gissendaner was scheduled to be executed on September 29, 2015, but was again delayed by appeals. She was executed by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia, on September 30 at 12:21 a.m.

Her last meal was cheese dip with chips, Texas nacho with fajitas meat and a diet-frosted lemonade. Gissendaner cried, prayed, sang "Amazing Grace", and said, "...and I love you Sally. And I love you Susan. You let my kids know I went out singing Amazing Grace. And tell the Gissendaner family I am so sorry. That amazing man lost his life because of me and if I could take it back, if this would change it, I would have done it a long time ago. But it's not. And I just hope they can find peace. And I hope they find some happiness. God bless you."

She was the first woman executed in Georgia since Lena Baker in 1945, as well as the only woman executed in the United States in 2015.