Georgia woman’s execution back on, as supporters cry for clemency

A petition saying the mother of three has turned her life around, even earning a theology degree while in prison, had garnered more than 40,000 signatures as of Monday morning, just hours before her execution. Organizers plan to deliver it to Gov. Nathan Deal, though in Georgia, the governor has no authority to grant clemency.

Gissendaner, 47, 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.

“Killing her is not going to bring anything back. It’s not going to undo what’s been done,” priest Kelly Zappa told CNN affiliate WSB.

Added the Rev. Della Bacote of Nashville: “I’m heartbroken because I testified on Tuesday at the clemency hearing. I heard what others had to say, and I was so moved.”

A few days’ reprieve

• 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 could 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 a fatal shot.

Sixty year after her execution, Georgia’s parole board posthumously pardoned her after finding that “it was a grievous error to deny (her) clemency.”

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.

CNN’s Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

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