Execution of Georgia woman postponed; problem with drug

The U.S. state of Georgia postponed its first execution of a woman in 70 years late Monday because of concerns about the drug to be used in the lethal injection.

The pentobarbital was sent to an independent lab to check its potency and the test came back at an acceptable level, but during subsequent checks it appeared cloudy, Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said. Corrections officials called the pharmacist and decided to postpone the execution "out of an abundance of caution," she said. No new date was given.

Pentobarbital is the only drug used in Georgia executions. For other recent executions, the state has gotten the drug from a compounding pharmacy, but officials did not immediately respond late Monday when asked if that was the source in this case. Georgia law prohibits the release of any identifying information about the source of execution drugs or any entity involved in an execution.

Kelly Renee Gissendaner had been scheduled to be executed for her husband's murder at 7 p.m. at the prison in Jackson. The execution was put on hold while officials waited for the U.S. Supreme Court to either grant or deny a stay requested by her lawyers. The court had still not ruled more than five hours later.

Earlier Monday, a federal appeals court in Atlanta rejected her lawyers' request to halt her execution on the grounds that Georgia's lethal injection procedures aren't transparent enough to allow a legal challenge.

Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, is scheduled to receive an injection of pentobarbital at 7 p.m. Monday at the state prison in Jackson for the February 1997 murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner.

Prosecutors said she plotted his stabbing death with her boyfriend, Gregory Owen. Owen pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence; his first possibility of parole will come in eight years, her lawyers said.

Gissendaner would be the first woman executed in Georgia since 1945 and only the 16th woman put to death nationwide since the Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976.

The parole board is the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence.

Gissendaner's lawyers note that the parole board already heard from many people testifying about Gissendaner's faith and remorse at a hearing last week before denying her clemency.

But, her lawyers argue, the board did not hear from many Department of Corrections employees whose perspective "would have left no doubt that a grant of clemency is supported in this case."

The board did not hear from Kathy Seabolt, who served as her warden for six years, first at Metro State Prison and then at Lee Arrendale State Prison. Seabolt could testify that former parole board chair James Donald promised Gissendaner would receive clemency, her lawyers wrote.

Each time the topic came up in conversations between Donald and Seabolt, "Donald reiterated his statement that Ms. Gissendaner did not need to worry about clemency as it was a foregone conclusion," they wrote.

Gissendaner's lawyers also urged the parole board to subpoena some other corrections employees so they can testify without fear of retaliation.

Although department rules allow employees to speak to lawyers for capital clemency proceedings, that is not always the case in practice, Gissendaner's lawyers wrote. Some employees had said they would testify and provide written statements on Gissendaner's behalf but changed their minds after getting a memo from the new warden, who succeeded Seabolt last year.

"Under no circumstances are you to discuss this with people outside the institution. Staff should also be careful what is said to other inmates and personal feelings are to be suppressed," Kathleen Kennedy wrote on Jan. 29 as she notified staff of the likelihood of the upcoming execution.

Gissendaner's lawyers also urged the board to consider that before trial, she had been offered the same plea deal as Owen — life in prison with an agreement not to seek parole for 25 years.

"At one time, therefore, all the parties involved in the case thought a sentence less than death was appropriate for Ms. Gissendaner," her lawyers wrote.

Owen, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death, took the deal and testified for the prosecution. Gissendaner balked at the parole agreement and took her lawyer's advice to go to trial.

The parole board has granted clemency before in cases in which co-defendants received disparate sentences, her lawyers wrote.

"In fact, this Board has on at least four occasions in the past commuted a death sentence of a co-defendant who was not the actual killer of the victim," the lawyers wrote.

Douglas Gissendaner's parents and sisters want her to be executed, but two of Kelly and Douglas' three children have asked the parole board to spare her life, the lawyers wrote.

In statements submitted with her clemency application, Kayla and Dakota Gissendaner describe a journey from bitterness and anger to forgiveness and say that they finally have a meaningful relationship with their mother.

"We also believe that Kelly's death will not restore them or make them whole," Gissendaner's lawyers wrote of the entire Gissendaner family.

Gissendaner was originally set to be executed last Wednesday, but the Department of Corrections postponed it due to a winter weather report.

The Associated Press