Georgia woman’s execution postponed because drugs appeared ‘cloudy’
By Devon M. Sayers and Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
Updated
9:14 AM EST, Tue March 3, 2015
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Story highlights
NEW: The execution is postponed because the drugs "appeared cloudy," Georgia says
Gissendaner's was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Monday for a murder plot targeting her husband
(CNN) —
For the second time, a Georgia woman’s execution has been postponed – this time because of concerns about the drugs to be used.
Kelly Renee Gissendaner was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. ET Monday.
“Prior to the execution, the drugs were sent to an independent lab for testing of potency. The drugs fell within the acceptable testing limits,” the Georgia Department of Corrections said in a statement.
“Within the hours leading up to the scheduled execution, the Execution Team performed the necessary checks. At that time, the drugs appeared cloudy. The Department of Corrections immediately consulted with a pharmacist, and in an abundance of caution, Inmate Gissendaner’s execution has been postponed.”
The 47-year-old was originally scheduled to die on Wednesday, but that execution was called off because of winter weather.
A petition saying the mother of three has turned her life around, even earning a theology degree while in prison, had garnered about 80,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning. Organizers plan to deliver it to Gov. Nathan Deal, though in Georgia, the governor has no authority to grant clemency.
Gissendaner has become a “powerful voice for good,” the petition says of the woman convicted of orchestrating her husband’s death in 1997.
“While incarcerated, she has been a pastoral presence to many, teaching, preaching and living a life of purpose,” the petition states. “Kelly is a living testament to the possibility of change and the power of hope. She is an extraordinary example of the rehabilitation that the corrections system aims to produce.”
On Sunday night, about 200 people attended a vigil at Emory University’s Cannon Chapel, where they sang her praises.
The pleas did not sway Georgia’s high court or its board of pardons. In a 5-2 decision Monday afternoon, the state Supreme Court denied her request for a stay, and it also dismissed a constitutional challenge claiming that her sentence was disproportionate. And the State Board of Pardons and Paroles said Monday evening that its decision last week to deny clemency in the case stands.
A few days’ reprieve
Not since Lena Baker, an African-American convicted of murder and pardoned decades later, has Georgia executed a woman. The state was scheduled to snap that 70-year streak Wednesday before Kelly Renee Gissendaner’s execution was postponed.
Just hours before she was scheduled to die by injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson last Wednesday, the Georgia Department of Corrections announced it had postponed the execution until Monday at 7 p.m. “due to weather and associated scheduling issues,” department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said.
Gissendaner was convicted in a February 1997 murder plot that targeted her husband in suburban Atlanta.
She was romantically involved with Gregory Owen and conspired with the 43-year-old to have her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, killed, according to court testimony. Owen wanted Kelly Gissendaner to file for a divorce, but she was concerned that her husband would “not leave her alone if she simply divorced him,” court documents said.
The Gissendaners had already divorced once, in 1993, and they remarried in 1995.
Owen and Kelly Gissendaner planned the murder for months. On February 7, 1997, she dropped Owen off at her home, gave him a nightstick and hunting knife and went out dancing with girlfriends.
Douglas Gissendaner also spent the evening away from home, going to a church friend’s house to work on cars. Owen lay in wait until he returned.
When Douglas Gissendaner came home around 11:30 p.m., Owen forced him by knifepoint into a car and drove him to a remote area of Gwinnett County.
There, Owen ordered his victim into the woods, took his watch and wallet to make it look like a robbery, hit him in the head with the nightstick and stabbed Douglas Gissendaner in the neck eight to 10 times.
Kelly Gissendaner arrived just as the murder took place, but did not immediately get out of her car. She later checked to make sure her husband was dead, then Owen followed her in Douglas Gissendaner’s car to retrieve a can of kerosene that Kelly Gissendaner had left for him.
Owen set her husband’s car on fire in an effort to hide evidence and left the scene with Kelly Gissendaner.
Story unravels
Police discovered the burned-out automobile the morning after the murder, but did not find the body. Authorities kicked off a search.
Kelly Gissendaner, meanwhile, went on local television appealing to the public for information on her husband’s whereabouts.
Gregory Owen is serving life in prison for his role in the murder of Douglas Gissendaner.
PHOTO:
Ga. Dept. of Corrections
Her and Owen’s story started to unravel after a series of police interviews. On February 20, Douglas Gissendaner’s face-down body was found about a mile from his car. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be knife wounds to the neck, but the medical examiner couldn’t tell which strike killed Douglas Gissendaner because animals had devoured the skin and soft tissue on the right side of his neck.
On February 24, Owen confessed to the killing and implicated Kelly Gissendaner, who was arrested the next day and charged.
While in jail awaiting trial, Kelly Gissendaner grew angry when she heard Owen was to receive a 25-year sentence for his role in the murder. (Owen is serving life in prison at a facility in Davisboro, according to Georgia Department of Corrections records.)
She began writing letters to hire a third person who would falsely confess to taking her to the crime scene at gunpoint.
She asked her cellmate, Laura McDuffie, to find someone willing to do the job for $10,000, and McDuffie turned Kelly Gissendaner’s letters over to authorities via her attorney.
Seeking clemency
Kelly Gissendaner has exhausted all state and federal appeals, the attorney general said in a statement. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied her clemency request, Steve Hayes, a spokesman for the board, said Wednesday.
In the clemency application, Gissendaner’s lawyers argued she was equally or less culpable than Owen, who actually did the killing. Both defendants were offered identical plea bargains before trial: life in prison with an agreement to not seek parole for 25 years.
Owen accepted the plea bargain and testified against his former girlfriend. Gissendaner was willing to plead guilty, her current lawyers said, but consulted with her trial lawyer and asked prosecutors to remove the stipulation about waiting 25 years to apply for parole.
According to her clemency appeal, her lead trial attorney, Edwin Wilson, said he thought the jury would not sentence her to death “because she was a woman and because she did not actually kill Doug. … I should have pushed her to take the plea but did not because I thought we would get straight up life if she was convicted.”
Her appeal lawyers also argued that Gissendaner had expressed deep remorse for her actions, become a model inmate and grown spiritually. They said her death would cause further hardship for her two children.
Georgia parole board’s posthumous pardon
For her last meal, she requested an extravagant one: two Burger King Whoppers with cheese (with everything), two large orders of fries, popcorn, cornbread, a side of buttermilk and a salad with tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, carrots, cheese, boiled eggs and Newman’s Own buttermilk dressing, the Corrections Department said. She also requested a glass of lemonade and cherry-vanilla ice cream for dessert.
Between 1973 and 2012 -- the most recent data available -- 178 death sentences have been imposed upon female offenders. These sentences constitute about 2% of all death sentences.
Five states -- North Carolina, Florida, California, Ohio and Texas -- account for over half of all such sentences.
As of December 31, 2012, there were 61 women on death row.
The present ages of the women on death row range from 28 to 79. They have been on death row from a few months to over 26 years.
Currently the only woman on Georgia’s death row, Gissendaner would be the second woman in the state’s history to be executed.
The first was Baker, an African-American maid who was sentenced to death by an all-white, all-male jury in 1944. She claimed self-defense for killing a man who held her against her will, threatened her life and appeared poised to hit her with a metal bar before she fired the fatal shot.
Such pardons are rare, but so are executions of women.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, only 15 women have been executed in the United States since 1977.
Photos: Women of death row
Kelly Renee Gissendaner was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, September 29. She was the only woman on Georgia's death row. She was convicted in a February 1997 murder plot that targeted her husband in suburban Atlanta. Women make up fewer than 2% of the inmates sentenced to die on death row in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
PHOTO:
Georgia Department of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Patricia Blackmon was 29 when she killed her 2-year-old adopted daughter in Dothan, Alabama, in May 1999. Blackmon was sentenced on June 7, 2002.
PHOTO:
Alabama Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Tierra Capri Gobble was 21 when she murdered her 4-month-old son in Dothan, Alabama, on December 15, 2004. She was sentenced on October 26, 2005.
Photos: Women of death row
Shonda Johnson was 28 when she murdered her husband in Jasper, Alabama, on November 30, 1997. She was sentenced on October 22, 1999.
Photos: Women of death row
Christie Michelle Scott was 30 when she murdered her 6-year-old son and committed arson in Russellville, Alabama, on September 16, 2008. The jury recommended a life sentence, but the judge sentenced her to death in August 2009.
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Wendi Andriano was 30 when she murdered her husband in Mesa, Arizona, on October 8, 2000. She was sentenced on December 22, 2004.
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Arizona Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Shawna Forde was 41 when she murdered a 29-year-old man and a 9-year-old girl in Arivaca, Arizona, on May 30, 2009. She was sentenced on February 23, 2011.
PHOTO:
Arizona Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Maria del Rosio Alfaro was 18 when she committed burglary, robbery, and murdered a 9-year-old girl in Anaheim, California, on June 15, 1990. She was sentenced on July 14, 1992.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Dora Luz Buenrostro was 34 when she murdered her two daughters, ages 4 and 9, and her 8-year-old son in San Jacinto, California, on October 25 and October 27, 1994. She was sentenced on October 2, 1998.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Socorro Caro was 42 when she murdered her three sons, ages 5, 8, and 11, in Santa Rosa Valley, California, on November 22, 1999. She was sentenced on April 5, 2002.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Celeste Simone Carrington was 30 when she murdered a 34-year-old man during a burglary on January 26, 1992, in San Carlos, California, and a 36-year-old woman during a burglary in Palo Alto, California, on March 11, 1992. She was sentenced to death on November 23, 1994.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Cynthia Lynn Coffman was 24 when she murdered a 20-year-old woman in San Bernardino County, California, on November 7, 1986. She was sentenced to death on August 31, 1989.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Kerry Lyn Dalton was 28 when she murdered a 23-year-old woman in Live Oak Springs, California, on June 26, 1988. She was sentenced to death on May 23, 1995.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Susan Eubanks was 33 when she murdered her four sons, ages 4, 6, 7, and 14, in San Marcos, California, on October 27, 1996. She was sentenced to death on October 13, 1999.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Veronica Gonzalez was 26 when she murdered her 4-year-old niece in San Diego on July 21, 1995. She was sentenced to death on July 20, 1998.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Valerie Dee Martin was 35 when she murdered her boyfriend in Lancaster, California, on March 28, 2003. She was sentenced to death on March 26, 2010.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Maureen McDermott was 37 when she murdered a 27-year-old man in Van Nuys, California, on April 28, 1985. She was sentenced to death on June 8, 1990.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Michelle Lyn Michaud was 38 when she kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered a 22-year-old woman in Pleasanton, California, on December 2, 1997. She was sentenced on September 25, 2002.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Tanya Jaime Nelson was 46 when she murdered two women, ages 23 and 52, in Westminster, California, on April 21, 2005. She was sentenced to death on March 26, 2010.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Sandi Dawn Nieves was 34 when she murdered her four daughters, ages 5, 7, 11, and 12, in Saugus, California, on June 30, 1998. She was sentenced on October 6, 2000.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Angelina Rodriguez was 32 when she murdered her husband in Montebello, California, on September 9, 2000. She was sentenced on January 12, 2004.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Brooke Marie Rottiers was 26 when she murdered two men, ages 22 and 28, in Corona, California, on August 28, 2006. She was sentenced on October 22, 2010.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Mary Ellen Samuels was 40 when she hired someone to kill her husband in Northridge, California, and then murdered her husband's killer in Ventura County, California on June 27, 1989. She was sentenced on September 16, 1994.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Cathy Lynn Sarinana was 30 when she murdered her 13-year-old nephew in Riverside, California, on December 25, 2005. She was sentenced on June 26, 2009.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Janeen Marie Snyder was 21 when she murdered a 16-year-old girl in Rubidoux, California, on April 17, 2001. She was sentenced on September 7, 2006.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Catherine Thompson was 42 when she hired someone to kill her husband in Westwood, California, on June 14, 1990. She was sentenced on June 10, 1993.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Manling Tsang Williams was 28 when she murdered her husband and two sons, ages 3 and 7, in Rowland Heights, California, on August 7, 2007. She was sentenced on January 18, 2012.
PHOTO:
California Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Margaret Allen was 39 when she murdered a 39-year-old woman in Titusville, Florida, on February 8, 2005. She was sentenced on May 19, 2011.
PHOTO:
Florida Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Tina Lasonya Brown was 39 when she murdered a 19-year-old woman in West Pensacola, Florida, on March 24, 2010. She was sentenced on September 28, 2012.
PHOTO:
Florida Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Ana Marie Cardona was 39 when she murdered her 3-year-old son in Miami on November 2, 1990. She was sentenced in 1992, the sentence was reversed 10 years later. She was resentenced on June 10, 2011.
PHOTO:
Florida Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Emilia Lily Carr was 24 when she murdered a 26-year-old woman in Boardman, Florida, on February 14, 2009. She was sentenced on February 22, 2011.
PHOTO:
Florida Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Tiffany Ann Cole was 23 when she murdered a 61-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman in Jacksonville, Florida, on July 8, 2005. She was sentenced on March 6, 2008.
PHOTO:
Florida Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Kelly Renee Gissendaner was 28 when she murdered her husband in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on February 7, 1997. She was sentenced on November 20, 1998.
PHOTO:
Georgia Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Robin Lee Row was 35 when she murdered her husband and her two children in Boise, Idaho, on February 10, 1992. She was sentenced on December 16, 1993.
PHOTO:
Idaho Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Paula Cooper, once a teen on Indiana's death row, was released from prison on Monday, June 17. She spent 27 years behind bars for stabbing a 78-year-old Bible teacher Ruth Pelke in the stomach and chest 33 times.
PHOTO:
Indiana Death Row
Photos: Women of death row
Debra Denise Brown was 21 when she murdered a 7-year-old girl in Gary, Indiana, on June 18,1984. She was sentenced on June 23, 1986. She is serving a life sentence in Ohio but is sentenced to death in Indiana.
PHOTO:
Indiana Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Virginia Susan Caudill was 37 when she robbed and murdered a 73-year-old woman in Lexington, Kentucky, on March 15, 1998. She was sentenced on March 24, 2000.
PHOTO:
Kentucky Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Antoinette Frank was 22 when she robbed and murdered a 25-year-old police officer, a 17-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman in New Orleans on March 4, 1994. She was sentenced on September 13, 1995.
PHOTO:
courtesy crimelibrary.com
Photos: Women of death row
Brandy Holmes was 23 when she robbed and murdered a 70-year-old man in Blanchard, Louisiana, on January 1, 2003. She was sentenced on February 21, 2006.
PHOTO:
courtesy crimelibrary.com
Photos: Women of death row
Michelle Byrom was 42 when she hired a killer to murder her husband in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, on June 4, 1999. She was sentenced on November 18, 2000.
PHOTO:
Mississippi Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Lisa Jo Chamberlin (aka Chamberlain) was 31 when she murdered a 34-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in March 2004. She was sentenced on August 4, 2006.
PHOTO:
Mississippi Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Lisa Montgomery was 36 when she murdered a 23-year-old woman in Skidmore, Missouri, on July 16, 2004. She was sentenced on April 4, 2008. She is being held in federal prison.
PHOTO:
Wyandotte County Sheriff's Dept./Getty Images
Photos: Women of death row
Patricia JoAnn Jennings was 47 when she murdered her husband in Wilson County, North Carolina, on September 19, 1989. She was sentenced on November 5,1990.
PHOTO:
North Carolina Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Blanche Kiser Moore was 56 when she murdered her boyfriend in Alamance County, North Carolina, on October 7, 1986. She was sentenced on January 18, 1991.
PHOTO:
North Carolina Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Carlette Elizabeth Parker was 34 when she murdered an 86-year-old woman in North Raleigh, North Carolina, on May 12, 1998. She was sentenced on April 1, 1999.
PHOTO:
North Carolina Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Christina S. Walters was 20 when she murdered a 19-year-old woman and a 25-year-old woman in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on August 17, 1998. She was sentenced on July 6, 2000.
PHOTO:
North Carolina Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Donna Marie Roberts was 58 when she murdered her husband near Warren, Ohio, on December 11, 2001. She was originally sentenced on June 21, 2003. That sentence was reversed on August 2, 2006, and she was resentenced on October 29, 2007.
PHOTO:
Ohio Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Brenda E. Andrew was 37 when she murdered her husband in Oklahoma City on November 20, 2001. She was sentenced on September 22, 2004.
PHOTO:
Oklahoma Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Angela Darlene McAnulty was 41 when she murdered her 15-year-old daughter in Eugene, Oregon, on December 9, 2009. She was sentenced on February 24, 2011.
PHOTO:
Oregon Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Michelle Sue Tharp was 29 when she murdered her 7-year-old daughter in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, on April 18, 1998. She was sentenced on November 14, 2004.
PHOTO:
Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Shonda Dee Walter was 23 when she murdered an 83-year-old man in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, on March 25, 2003. She was sentenced on April 19, 2005.
PHOTO:
Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Christa Gail Pike was 18 when she murdered a 19-year-old woman in Knoxville, Tennessee, on January 12,1995. She was sentenced on March 29,1996.
PHOTO:
Tennessee Dept. of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Kimberly Cargill was 42 when she murdered a 39-year-old woman in Whitehouse, Texas, on June 18, 2010. She was sentenced on May 31, 2012.
PHOTO:
Texas Dept of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Linda Anita Carty was 42 when she kidnapped and murdered a 20-year-old woman and the victim's infant son in Houston on May 16, 2001. She was sentenced on February 21, 2002.
PHOTO:
Texas Dept of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Cathy Lynn Henderson was 37 when she murdered a 3-month-old boy she was babysitting near Austin, Texas, on January 21, 1994. She was sentenced on May 25, 1995.
PHOTO:
Texas Dept of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Brittany Marlowe Holberg was 23 when she murdered an 80-year-old man in Amarillo, Texas, on November 13, 1996. She was sentenced on March 27, 1998.
PHOTO:
Texas Dept of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Melissa Elizabeth Lucio was 38 when she murdered her 2-year-old daughter in Harlington, Texas, on February 16, 2007. She was sentenced in August 2008.
PHOTO:
Texas Dept of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Darla Lynn Routier was 26 when she murdered her 5-year-old son in Rowlett, Texas, on June 6, 1996. She was sentenced on February 4, 1997.
PHOTO:
Texas Dept of Corrections
Photos: Women of death row
Erica Yvonne Sheppard was 19 when she murdered a 43-year-old woman in Houston on June 30, 1993. She was sentenced on March 3, 1995.
PHOTO:
Texas Dept of Corrections
CNN’s Holly Yan, Tina Burnside, Greg Botelho, Tristan Smith and John Murgatroyd contributed to this report.
