Pope Francis Calls For Abolishing The Death Penalty And Life Imprisonment
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/pope-francis-calls-for-abolishing-death.html
As a state parole board is poised to decide whether Kelly Renee Gissendaner will be executed for the murder of her husband at the hands of her lover, the victim's family says she doesn't deserve clemency.
"Kelly planned and executed Doug's murder. She targeted him and his death was intentional," Douglas Gissendaner's family said in a written statement.
"In the last 18 years, our mission has been to seek justice for Doug's murder and to keep his memory alive. We have faith in our legal system and do believe that Kelly has been afforded every right that our legal system affords.
"As the murderer, she's been given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded to Doug who, again, is the victim here. She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life. His life was not hers to take."
Three of Gissendaner's children, now adults, have reconciled with her since the 1997 murder and are publicly pleading for her life to be spared. They appeared Tuesday before the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which agreed to reconsider an earlier denial of clemency.
Gissendaner's application for clemency focuses on the fact that she received a harsher sentence than Greg Owen, the boyfriend who actually carried out the killing and is serving life without parole.
The application also notes that Gissendaner has been a model prisoner who counsels other inmates and completed a theology program while behind bars. Hundreds of clergy have supported her clemency bid.
The parole board has three choices — stick with its original denial of clemency and send Gissendaner to the death chamber, issue a stay of up to 90 days to consider the matter further, or commute her sentence to life or life without parole.
Michael Mears, an associate professor at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School who worked on one of Gissendaner's early appeals, said he would be surprised if the board commuted the sentence.
"I don't see the parole board stopping the execution," he said, adding that the panel may have agreed to a new hearing mainly out of "deference to the children."
The lethal injection is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday. Gissendaner requested her final meal last week: cheese dip with chips, Texas fajita nachos and a diet frosted lemonade.
If the execution proceeds, she will be the first woman put to death in the state in 70 years.
Doug Gissendaner's family has said that whatever happens, the focus should be on him and not on his killer.
"His last act on earth was helping his friends," they said in the statement.
"He was a friendly, trusting, good-hearted soul with a smile that will never be forgotten. He was undisputedly a family man, a great friend and an even greater father who loved and sacrificed everything for the sake of his daughter and two stepsons.
"For those of us that loved him, we will always feel great sorrow and indescribable pain at how he was so brutally taken from us, but also take comfort in knowing that he's in heaven waiting for each and every one of us to rejoin him someday."
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