Georgia's Only Woman On Death Row Sues Over 'Mortal Fear' During Delayed Execution

Kelly Gissendaner in her death row cell

A "botched" execution caused the only woman on Georgia's death row to endure 13 hours of “immense mental anxiety” and "mortal fear" -- and was heinous enough to make a future execution unnecessarily cruel and therefore unconstitutional, the woman's lawyers argue in a new lawsuit against the state.

In a scathing complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Monday, attorneys for death row inmate Kelly Gissendaner slammed the Georgia Department of Corrections for secretive execution protocols and "dithering" indecision that led Gissendaner's execution to be delayed indefinitely on the night it was scheduled.

"Ms. Gissendaner endured hours of unconstitutional torment and uncertainty –- to which she had not been sentenced –- while Defendants dithered about whether they could execute her," they wrote.

Gissendaner's death by lethal injection was scheduled for 7 p.m. on March 2, but hours passed that night without confirmation trickling from the prison.

Former corrections officials previously told HuffPost that executions are supposed to last minutes, with personnel and witnesses typically in and out of the death chamber in 30-45 minutes under ideal circumstances.

Lindsay Bennett, Gissendaner's lawyer, said in a signed declaration that she received the first of three phone calls at 10:19 p.m., from a senior assistant attorney general telling her the execution was "off" for the night because the lethal injection drugs appeared "cloudy."

After relaying that news to Gissendaner and her family, Bennett received another call 10 minutes later telling her there'd been confusion about which drugs had been examined for use, and another batch of the lethal injection cocktail might be available for the execution to go forward.

Bennett said she was called again at 10:43 p.m. and told the execution was definitely off for that evening because a pharmacist expressed concern that the drugs would not be "appropriate for medical purposes."

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Source: The Huffington Post, March 12, 2015

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