State officials are investigating after a series of messages protesting Kelly Gissendaner’s scheduled execution appeared on a state building’s walkway Monday morning.
Georgia Building Authority employees were using a power washer to clean the breezeway outside the James H. “Sloppy” Floyd Building across the street from the Capitol in downtown Atlanta.
Authority spokesman Paul Melvin said the Department of Public Safety is investigating. A DPS spokesman did not immediately return requests for comment.
The messages drawn outside the Floyd building included pleas to “Act with courage save Kelly’s life!” and admonitions that “Jesus was also murdered by the state.” Most included the Twitter hashtag #kellyonmymind.
A federal judge on Monday refused to block Gissendaner's execution, scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday. She was originally set to die in March, but her execution was delayed and ultimately postponed over concerns the state's supply of lethal injection drugs were cloudy.
Gissendaner was convicted of plotting her husband’s 1997 murder and then persuading her then lover, Gregory Owen, to do it. Owen pleaded guilty and testified against her and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Gissendaner rejected the same deal offered Owen and went to trial.
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