As the number of legal appeals dwindled, supporters began facing the prison and singing hymns. Gissendaner was executed at 12:21 Wednesday morning, September 30. Grant Blankenship/Georgia Public Broadcasting

Georgia Executes a Woman for the First Time in 70 Years

Grant Blankenship/Georgia Public Broadcasting

Jackson, Ga —

The Second World War was just coming to an end the last time the state of Georgia put a woman to death. Tuesday, 70 years later, Kelly Gissendaner was executed by lethal injection for murdering her husband in 1997.

Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole waits for media to leave before hearing a son of Kelly Gissendaner’s who did not speak at her earlier clemency hearing. Grant Blankenship/Georgia Public Broadcasting

Despite the loss of their father, Gissendaner’s children were among those who asked the State Board of Pardons and Parole to spare her life. Yet after hearing those arguments on three separate occasions, her sentence was upheld by the Board.

Kelly Gissendaner’s children before asking one last time for mercy from the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole. Grant Blankenship/Georgia Public Broadcasting

Hours after the Board’s decision, a group of about three hundred death penalty protesters waited in the rain to see if the execution would be carried out. Among them was Dawn Barber. She credits Gissendaner for helping her survive prison.

“Kelly kept me alive. You know I was there, I had already broke the razor blade. You know I was going to slice my wrists and I was in lock down,” Barber said.

Dawn Barber, left, Dawn Barber cries as she hugs a friend. Barber said Gissendaner helped talk her out of a suicide in prison. Right, Death Penalty protesters wait in the rain for news about Kelly Gissendaner’s execution. Gissendaner was the first woman executed in Georgia since 1945. Grant Blankenship/Georgia Public Broadcasting

That theme of Gissendaner the counselor was the other argument that failed to persuade the Board of Pardons and Parole. Over the years it had been echoed not only by fellow inmates but also by clergy members sent to minister to Gissendaner who said she instead ministered to them and even prison guards.

As waiting wore on and the final legal arguments were exhausted, supporters sang hymns toward the prison. The singing stretched on until hours later, word of the execution came.

Gissendaner was executed at 12:21 am, Wednesday, September 30. Rhonda Cook of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, one of the media witnesses, described Gissendaner’s death.

“She sang Amazing Grace almost until she lost consciousness,” Cook described. Then she quoted Kelly Gissendaner directly.

“Tell the Gissendaners I am so so sorry this amazing man lost his life because of me.”

Kelly Gissendaner was forty seven years old.

The area reserved for death penalty supporters during the events leading up to Kelly Gissendaner’s execution. No one set foot in the area throughout the night. Grant Blankenship/Georgia Public Broadcasting