Demonstrators hold signs as they pray during a rally outside the parole board office in Atlanta on Sept. 23, 2015 to ask the Board of Pardons and Paroles to change the execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner to life in prison. Read more
Cook: The cop, the death row inmate and the plea for mercy
ATLANTA – Georgia is preparing to execute the lone woman on the state’s death row.
Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 47, was convicted and sentenced to death in the February 1997 slaying of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner. Prosecutors say she conspired with her lover, Gregory Owen, who ambushed her husband, forced him to drive to a remote area and stabbed him repeatedly. Owen and Gissendaner then met up and set fire to the dead man’s car.
Owen pleaded guilty and testified against Gissendaner. He’s serving a life sentence and becomes eligible for parole in 2022.
Gissendaner’s execution is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the state prison in Jackson.