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| Kelly Gissendaner |
A woman on Georgia's death row could be executed as early as September 29 and now religious leaders have joined her fight.
Kelly Renee Gissendaner is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, September 29 for killing her husband in 1997.
Her children have released a video, asking for mercy in the case.
The children said their mom has become a caring mother since she has been incarcerated.
A court has set a seven-day execution window for Gissendaner, who is Georgia's only female death row inmate. Her execution was halted in March because of a problem with the lethal injection drug.
Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said in a news release that a Gwinnett County Superior Court judge issued an order September 19, saying Gissendaner may be executed between 12 p.m. on Sept. 29 and 12 p.m. on Oct. 6.
Gissendaner was scheduled for execution at 7 p.m. March 2. Corrections officials told reporters about 11 p.m. that they were postponing the execution "out of an abundance of caution" because the lethal injection drug appeared "cloudy."
Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband. Prosecutors said she conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death.
Local religious leaders will fight the scheduled execution of Gissendaner on Wednesday. They are hoping that the parole board will change her sentence to life in prison.
Source: WTOC news, September 23, 2015
Standing with Kelly Gisendaner
This is a message from Mercy Junction. I called. Would you? You could save a precious life...
Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center is asking that YOU call the Georgia Parole and Pardons Board TODAY and ask that they STOP the state-sanctioned murder of Kelly Gisendaner.
WHAT TO SAY: I am calling regarding the impending execution of Kelly Gisendaner by the state of Georgia. The Parole and Pardons Board has the power to stop the execution from being carried out. Kelly's children are begging for their mother's life. Kelly is the example of remorse and rehabilitation. If there has ever been a case for clemency, a case in which the wisdom of the Board should stop the actions of the state, Kelly's is that case.
STATEMENT FROM MERCY JUNCTION:
Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center appeals to the Georgia Parole and Pardons Board to grant a clemency hearing and commute Kelly Gisendaner's death sentence. Mercy Junction strongly opposes the state-sanctioned killing of Kelly for multiple reasons, and especially because of our faith in another who was executed by the state, Jesus Christ.
1. Mercy Junction believes in the possibility of redemption's power for all, even those who have committed the most heinous of crimes. This is centrally important to any understanding of following Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:9, John 10:10). In Kelly we see the possibility of an incredible example of redemption (Romans 6:4). From limited freedom, Kelly has already changed the lives of others because she has experienced the positive change that the parole and pardon board wants to see as part of its own vision statement.
2. Mercy Junction believes that taking responsibility for one's own action is essential to the idea of redemption and the possibility for the beginning of wholeness of our society. Kelly, through her own words and the reconciling witness of her children, has taken responsibility for her actions (I John 1:9).
3. Mercy Junction believes that in following one who was tortured and killed on the cross by the state we have a responsibility to oppose this type of tragedy being repeated by a state that represents us as citizens.
4. Mercy Junction believes that the board of Pardons and Parole has the ethical and moral duty to commute Kelly's sentence to the same sentence that was given to the actual perpetrator of the crime.
5. Even though we do not support the death penalty, Mercy Junction believes that the current process of carrying out the death penalty is cruel to any who have to go through its legal machinations. Kelly has already gone through 2 stays of execution, and 1 was because of serious questions about the poisons being used to kill her. The decades spent on death row in isolation can only be considered cruel by any moral standard of incarceration.
6. Mercy Junction believes that even in the most unbending bureaucracy there needs to be the ability for wisdom to override processes. The parole and pardons board is the only party, according to the constitution of the State of Georgia, that can exercise wisdom and stop Kelly's execution. It is the members of this board who hold the responsibility for life and death in the stroke of a pen. The decision of death is an awesome responsibility. We believe that the only way that you can carry out a wise decision with a clear conscience in Kelly's case is to grant a clemency hearing, and then stop the killing of someone whose continued breath is valued in the divine's judgment.
Source: The Christian Century, September 23, 2015
