Georgia death row inmate shows 'concrete fruit of redemption'

Last night, Georgia corrections officials delayed the execution of death row inmate Kelly Renee Gissendaner for the second time this week, citing concerns over the drug used for the lethal injection. While an original test reported the drug reached acceptable levels of potency, the cocktail appeared cloudy in later checks, according to Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan. Officials have not yet set a new date for the execution.

Gissendaner, who has three children, was found guilty and sentenced to death for persuading her boyfriend, Gregory Owen, to kill her then-husband, Douglas Gissendaner, in 1997.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles upheld the death sentence late Monday after Gissendaner’s lawyers urged members to reconsider and “bestow mercy” by commuting her sentence to life without parole. The lawyers argued her sentence was incommensurate to the crime, since Gissendaner was not present when Owen stabbed her husband to death. The board rejected the claim in a 5-2 vote, citing Owen’s testimony that Gissendaner pushed murder over divorce because she wanted to claim the insurance money. Owen accepted a life sentence in exchange for his testimony against Gissendaner. He will be up for parole in eight years.

But the lawyers also argued Gissendaner has been fully rehabilitated, a claim supported by dozens of testimonies from corrections employees and spiritual advisors, who say Gissendaner underwent a dramatic spiritual transformation during her time in prison.

The testimonies describe a damaged woman who found hope in Christ and has helped other struggling inmates find it as well. Since being in prison, Gissendaner has completed a theology degree through a program for prisoners run by a group of local colleges and universities, according to The New York Times. During the program, she was introduced to the works of German theologian Jürgen Moltmann and his theology of hope. She eventually wrote to him and kept up an ongoing correspondence.

Parole boards often hear conversion stories that are less than sincere in attempts to lower sentences. But people who worked with Gissendaner personally attest to the sincerity of her transformation.

“The narrative of the clemency hearing and everything after that was not just about her redemption, but the visible, concrete fruit of her redemption,” Jennifer McBride, Regent Chair of Ethics at Wartburg College, told me. McBride, then a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, was one of Gissendaner’s professors while she pursued her theology certificate. McBride has kept in touch with Gissendaner and traveled to Georgia to support her. McBride said Gissendaner has helped inmates who struggled with suicidal thoughts, depression and hopelessness, and is able to reach out to them “in ways nobody else really can.”

“The other inmates could see when inmates were being escorted across the yard with cut-up or bandaged arms from attempted suicides, and would yell to Kelly about it,” former guard Marian Williams told The New York Times. “Kelly could talk to those ladies and offer them some sort of hope and peace.”

Gissendaner’s supporters, several dozen of whom gathered outside the prison, include chaplains, theology professors, and women once behind bars with her.

Michelle Collins, who did time for forgery, reflected on how Gissendaner moved her to think about her future.

“She looked around at us and said, ‘At least y’all are going to get out of here again. Who are you to throw your lives away when I’m never going to get out of here?’” Collins recalled. “She gave me the will to do something good when I got out. … She told me to make sure I never came back, and I never have.”

While Gissendaner has successfully worked toward reconciliation with her children, Douglas Gissendaner’s family made it clear they wanted the execution to move forward. It seems unlikely it will be halted permanently.

“She recognizes, and all of us who are fighting for her mercy recognize, the horror of the crime,” McBride said. “We can’t imagine the pain of the Gissendaner family, and she carries that pain of remorse of how she’s hurt them in unimaginable ways as well. I think that repentance and hope go together.”

Moltmann told The New York Times Gissendaner would get mercy one way or another: “If the State of Georgia has no mercy, she has received already the mercy of Heaven.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.