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Even the Pope Can't Stop Georgia from Executing People

Pope Francis asked the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to spare Kelly Gissendaner's life, but the state executed her anyway.

In 1998 Kelly Gissendaner was convicted of planning her husband's murder. This week, the state of Georgia executed her. Gissendaner's death comes at the end of a nearly two-decade battle to get off death row, which ended with Pope Francis advocating for Georgia to change her sentence and save her life.

Gissendaner's lover, Gregory Owen, committed the murder, but only Gissendaner received the death penalty because her lover took a plea for life in prison and to testify against Gissendaner. "Kelly Gissendaner's lawyer apparently believed he was going to be able to acquit her of the more serious charges because she is a woman," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a national organization that provides information and analysis on death penalty issues. "Her case spotlights several of the really serious systemic issues with the death penalty." One of them is arbitrary death sentences.

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"[Gissendaner's sentence] is an arbitrary death sentence for several different reasons," he said. "First, both she and Owens were offered pleas to non-capital charges, so the prosecutor before this case began was willing to forego the death penalty—this was not invariably a capital case." Dunham believes the court sentenced Gissendaner to death because she refused to take a plea, not because her involvement with the murder required the death penalty.

The accused may decline to make a plea deal for several issues, Dunham said. They could suffer from a mental illness, poor representation, and/or an intellectual impairment that may prevent them from understanding or accepting a prosecutor's offer. If a defendant believes they're innocent, they may never consider accepting a plea that would sentence them to life in prison—especially if they expect the justice system to recognize their perceived inculpability.

Of the 58 women on death row in the United States, Gissendaner is the 16th the government has executed. She will be the only woman executed this year. Advocates believe prosecutors regularly levy sex stereotypes against defendants during the prosecution. "Last September, Texas executed Lisa Coleman," Dunham noted. "She was an African American lesbian woman, and there were prosecutorial comments about unconventional gender roles. It's part of the otherness that you frequently see when a woman is sentenced to death."

In Gissendaner's trial, Dunham saw prosecutors describe manipulation as a key theme in her story. "You hear about non-traditional sex roles," he said. In prison, though, Gissendaner became a harbinger of religious values. She earned a theological degree from Emory and ministered to other inmates. In her final days, she pled to Pope Francis, asking him to advocate for her life on her behalf. He sent a letter via Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. The Archbishop wrote to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles: "While not wishing to minimize the gravity of the crime for which Ms. Gissendander has been convicted, and while sympathizing with the victims, I nonetheless implore you, in consideration of the reasons that have been expressed to your board, to commute the sentence to one that would better express both justice and mercy."

The best efforts of the Catholic Church failed to change Georgia's decision. Many Catholics have protested the state's decision. Along with more controversial beliefs, like opposing abortion, Catholics detest execution, even creating organizations dedicated to ending capital punishment. One such group, the Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), aims to educate Catholic Americans and other citizens about the ethical tragedy of capital punishment, while advocating for reform.

"There were 54 women [on Death Row]; now with Kelly's execution there's 53 women," said Karen Clifton, executive director of the anti-capital punishment religious organization Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty. "Out of the 1414 people that have been executed, 1148 of them have taken place in the southern states, so it's 81 percent. The issue is strongly around poverty and race."

Clifton wasn't surprised the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Gissendaner's plea for clemency, even at the archbishop's behest. Clifton couldn't tell me the number of letters sent by the Catholic Church, but she assured me they have begged the courts to change their decision. "The church and bishops have spoken out numerous, numerous, times. Every execution that takes place, they send a letter, and they speak out against it," Clifton explained. "The only one that publicly made a difference was in 1999 when John Paul II was here, in St. Louis, and he spoke out for Darrell Mease, and the governor converted his sentence to life without parole. That was the only time."