September 28, 2015
Georgia’s Parole Board Schedules Meeting to Consider Supplemental Information in the Gissendaner Case
ATLANTA - The State Board of Pardons and Paroles will meet at 11 a.m., September 29, 2015, in order to receive and consider supplemental information to be presented by representatives for Kelly Gissendaner. The Parole Board Members have thoroughly reviewed a second request received late last week from Gissendaner’s representatives to reconsider its previous decision denying clemency.
Following the meeting, the Board will determine whether to let stand the February 25, 2015, decision to deny clemency in the case, issue a stay of up to 90-days to further consider the case or the Board may grant clemency and commute the sentence to life with or without the possibility of parole.
Gissendaner is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday, September 29, 2015, at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the February 1997 death of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner and was sentenced to death in 1998. Gissendaner’s appeal to the United States Supreme Court was denied on October 6, 2014.
In Georgia, the Parole Board has the sole constitutional authority to commute, or reduce, a death sentence to life with the possibility of parole or to life without the possibility of parole. The Board maintains a comprehensive file on every death-sentenced inmate. The file includes the circumstances of the offense, the inmate’s criminal history and a comprehensive history of the life of the condemned inmate.
It is anticipated that the meeting will be closed as authorized by O.C.G.A. § 50-14-3 (a)(2). No public comment will be taken at this meeting and no other business will be conducted. Media will be afforded the opportunity to take photographs prior to the meeting. Media should check in with credentials by 10:30 a.m. in the Board’s public reception office at 2 Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive, East Tower, 4th Floor, room 458. Media should first be cleared for entry by building security on the Plaza Level. Members of the media will be given an opportunity to wait until the conclusion of the meeting to interview those seeking executive clemency for Gissendaner, if they choose to grant interviews.
For more information please contact Steve Hayes, Director of the Office of Communications, at 404-657-9450 or [email protected] or visit our website at www.pap.georgia.gov.