A Gwinnett County judge on Monday signed an order setting the execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner for the end of this month, making it possible she will be the first woman Georgia has put to death since 1945.
The execution warrant sets the window for Gissendaner’s lethal injection for during a seven-day period that starts with Feb. 25, a Wednesday. The Department of Corrections sets the specific time, usually at 7 p.m. on the first day that a judge has set aside for the execution to be carried out.
Gissendaner was convicted to persuading her boyfriend to murder her husband, Douglas, in 1997. The killer, Gregory Owen, helped the district attorney with its case against Gissendaner. In exchange, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty against him.
Owen is serving life in prison.
Lena Baker, 44, was electrocuted on March 5, 1945. Georgia has put to death 13 women since 1735. Baker was the only woman Georgia put to death in the 20th Century.
Baker, a black maid, was convicted of murder by an all-white jury in a one-day trial even though she said she shot her boss in self defense. She said Ernest Knight, a white man, had imprisoned and threatened to shoot her should she try to leave. She shot him with his own gun.
The state pardoned her in 2005.
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