Meet Kelly Gissendaner, 47. ?Gissendaner, who is scheduled to be put to death next week, will be the first?woman to be executed in Georgia since the 1945 execution of Lena Baker.
[BLACK HISTORY: Meet Lena Baker, The Only Woman to Be Executed in Georgia (PHOTOS + VIDEO)]
The state is scheduled to snap that 70-year streak on Wednesday with Gissendaner, 47, who?was convicted in 1997 murder plot that targeted her husband in suburban Atlanta.
Details below…
Gissendaner was romantically involved with Gregory Owen and conspired with the 43-year-old to have her husband killed, according to court testimony.
The Gissendaners had already divorced once, in 1993, and they remarried in 1995.
Owen wanted Kelly Gissendaner to file for another divorce, but she was concerned that her husband would “not leave her alone if she simply divorced him,” court documents said.
Owen intercepted Doug Gissendaner at home and forced the husband to drive to a secluded area of Gwinnett County where Owen stabbed him repeatedly in the neck.
Police discovered the burned-out automobile the morning after the murder but did not find the body. Authorities kicked off a search. Meanwhile, Kelly went on local television appealing to the public for information on her husband’s whereabouts.
Owen, the lover who carried out the actual killing, testified against Gissendaner and was ultimately sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. While?Gissendaner was sentenced to die because she planned the murder.
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Gissendaner has made a request for her last meal.
She asked for cornbread, buttermilk, two Whoppers with cheese and all the trimmings, two large orders of French fries, cherry vanilla ice cream, popcorn and lemonade. She also wants a salad with boiled eggs, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, carrots and cheese to be topped with Paul Newman buttermilk dressing.
While condemned murderers are always offered a final meal, in the most recent instances the men to be put to death have opted for the same meal served other inmates. And then they did not eat once their dinners were brought to them.
If she is executed, Gissendaner will be the first woman Georgia has put to death since Lena Baker (1945).
[Read more about this story on CNN.]