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Georgia board rejects Pope's plea, executes first female in 70 years
By David Beasley
Atlanta: Georgia's parole board turned down a plea for clemency from Pope Francis and executed the only woman on its death row for plotting her husband's murder in 1997.
Kelly Gissendaner, 47, died by injection at 12:21am local time on Wednesday (2:21pm AEST) - more than five hours after the scheduled time - at a prison in Jackson, Georgia, the Atlanta television station WSB-TV reported.
Pope Francis, who concluded a six-day US trip on Sunday and is an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, had urged officials via a letter sent by an archbishop on his behalf, to commute her death sentence.
The state's Board of Pardons and Paroles met on Tuesday to decide whether its refusal earlier this year to commute Gissendaner's sentence to life in prison should stand.
Board members were not swayed by the inmate's last appeal for clemency, which emphasised her model behaviour in prison and remorse for plotting the murder.
"I'm very disappointed and saddened by this decision," said the Reverend Cathy Zappa, an Episcopal priest who taught Gissendaner through a prison theology program.
Gissendaner was "scared but she has not wavered" in her belief in God, the priest said.
The woman's lawyers told the board her death sentence was disproportionate to her crime because she did not kill Douglas Gissendaner and was not present when he was stabbed to death.
The man who carried out the kidnapping and murder, Kelly Gissendaner's then-boyfriend Gregory Owen, received a life sentence.
Gissendaner's execution is the first death sentence carried out for a woman in Georgia in 70 years. She was be the 16th woman executed in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Her supporters included her three adult children and a former Georgia Supreme Court justice, who says he was wrong to deny one of Gissendaner's earlier appeals. Backers had taken to social media using the hashtag #kellyonmymind to call for her life to be spared.
But the family of Doug Gissendaner said Kelly Gissendaner showed him no mercy.
"As the murderer," the family said in a statement, "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."
Gissendaner's execution was first called off in February due to bad weather and then again in March after prison officials noticed the lethal injection drug appeared "cloudy".
Tests later indicated the appearance was caused by storing the drug at too cold a temperature, prison officials said.
Reuters