Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and for­mer State Corrections Deputy Director Vanessa O’Donnell have joined the effort to spare Kelly Gissendaner, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Georgia on September 29 for recruit­ing Gregory Owen, with whom she was roman­ti­cal­ly involved, to mur­der her hus­band. Owen made a deal with pros­e­cu­tors for a life sen­tence and will be eli­gi­ble for parole in 8 years. Justice Fletcher wrote a let­ter to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, who hold the pow­er to grant clemen­cy in Georgia, say­ing that — giv­en Owen’s sen­tence — Gissendaner’s death sen­tence is dis­pro­por­tion­ate to her role in the mur­der. ​“The State of Georgia has not exe­cut­ed a per­son who did not com­mit the actu­al killing since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976,” he wrote. ​“There is a rea­son for this. Kelly Gissendaner should not be the first.” Fletcher said the process the court used to con­duct pro­por­tion­al­i­ty review at the time of Gissendaner’s appeal ​“was deeply flawed” and that he had been wrong to join with oth­er jus­tices in rul­ing that Gissendaner’s sen­tence was pro­por­tion­ate to the sen­tences imposed for oth­er sim­i­lar mur­ders. O’Donnell, who was the war­den from 2001 to 2004 at the state prison in which Gissendaner was incar­cer­at­ed, urged the Board to grant Gissendaner clemen­cy because of her ​“excep­tion­al prison adjust­ment, her role in the crime as com­pared with her co-defen­dant who is serv­ing a life sen­tence, her remorse, and the pleas of the Gissendaner chil­dren.” O’Donnell told the Board that Gissendaner had ​“reached out to oth­er inmates at their low­est ebb of despair and helped them to rec­og­nize their worth and to see a path out of prison” and, if spared, ​“can pro­vide hope to the most des­per­ate female offend­er in a man­ner no one else could possibly understand.”

Dozens of prison spir­i­tu­al advi­sors, inmates, and prison staff, as well as two of her chil­dren, have request­ed clemen­cy for Gissendaner.

(“Officials seek clemen­cy for Ga. moth­er on death row,” USA Today, September 27, 2015; 11 Alive Staff, ​“Former high-rank­ing state offi­cials join grow­ing cho­rus ask­ing for Gissendaner clemen­cy,” WXIA-TV, September 26, 2015.) See New Voices and Clemency.

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