Page 5 - aruba today sept 29,2015
P. 5
U.S. NEWS A5
Tuesday 29 September 2015
New clemency hearing set for Georgia female death row inmate
KATE BRUMBACK sentatives for Gissendaner, lover, Gregory Owen, who Two of Gissendaner’s three address the board, said Su-
Associated Press the release says. stabbed Douglas Gissend- children already asked the san Casey, an attorney for
ATLANTA (AP) — A day be- Gissendaner was con- aner to death. Owen, who board earlier this year to Gissendaner.
fore the only woman on victed of murder in the took a plea deal and testi- spare their mother’s life. Earlier Monday, U.S. Dis-
Georgia’s death row is set trict Judge Thomas Thrash
to be executed, the state In this 2004 photo, Kelly Renee Gissendaner, the only woman on Georgia’s death row, looks declined to halt Gissend-
Board of Pardons and Pa- through the slot in her cell door as a guard brings her a cup of ice at Metro State Prison in At- aner’s execution or recon-
roles on Monday scheduled lanta. Georgia state officials have granted a new clemency hearing for Gissendaner. The Georgia sider his dismissal of a com-
a new clemency hearing in Board of Pardons and Paroles said in a news release Monday, Sept. 28, 2015, that it will hold the plaint that Gissendaner’s
her case. Kelly Renee Gis- hearing Tuesday morning. lawyers filed in March. They
sendaner, 47, is set to die by argued, in part that there’s
injection of pentobarbital (Bita Honarvar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP) a substantial risk of serious
at 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) Tues- harm if the execution pro-
day at the state prison in February 1997 slaying of fied against Gissendaner, is The parole board’s deci- ceeds as planned because
Jackson. She was previous- her husband, Douglas Gis- serving life in prison and will sion to hold a new hear- officials still can’t explain
ly scheduled to die March sendaner. Prosecutors said become eligible for parole ing came after her oldest what went wrong with the
2, but state officials called she conspired with her in 2022. child, Brandon, asked to execution drug in March.
off the execution “out of an Gissendaner’s attorneys
abundance of caution” af- have appealed Thrash’s
ter noticing that the execu- ruling to the 11th U.S. Circuit
tion drug was “cloudy.”The Court of Appeals.
new clemency hearing will After the problem with the
be held Tuesday morning. execution drug surfaced,
The parole board, the only Georgia corrections offi-
entity authorized to com- cials suspended executions
mute a death sentence until an analysis could be
in Georgia, said in a news done.
release that its members In mid-April they released
have thoroughly reviewed lab reports, a sworn state-
a second request from ment from a pharmaco-
Gissendaner’s lawyers to logical expert hired by the
reconsider a February de- state and a short video
cision denying clemency. showing a syringe of clear
They are holding the new liquid with chunks of a
hearing to gather addition- white solid floating in the
al information from repre- solution. q
Prison worker who helped 2 killers escape gets up to 7 years
MICHAEL HILL seeking for damages to and disruption the search by a border agent June 26. disrupted life in a wide
Associated Press Clinton Correctional Facil- for the killers caused. Sweat was wounded and swath of the region for
PLATTSBURGH, New York ity from the brazen June 6 Mitchell, 51, had pleaded captured by a state troop- three weeks.
(AP) — A sobbing former escape. The judge showed guilty to charges related to er two days later. “A large portion of the lo-
prison worker who helped little sympathy as he hand- providing hacksaw blades Mitchell admitted becom- cal population were terror-
two murderers escape from ed down the sentence and and other tools to inmates ing close with the pair while ized,” he said.
a maximum-security lockup set a Nov. 6 restitution hear- Richard Matt and David she worked as an instruc- “Many were forced to flee
said she regretted her “hor- ing. Sweat. tor in the prison tailor shop. their homes.”
rible mistake” as she was “If I could take it all back, I Matt was serving 25 years She told investigators she Mitchell said she didn’t tell
sentenced Monday to up would,” she told the judge. to life for the killing and dis- agreed to be their get- anyone about the inmates’
to seven years behind bars “I never intended for any of membering of his former away driver before back- escape plan because Matt
as part of a plea deal. this to happen.” boss. Sweat was serving life ing out after suffering a had threatened to harm
Joyce Mitchell apologized Mitchell entered the court- without parole for killing a panic attack. The escap- her family, particularly her
profusely as she was sen- room in tears and cried sheriff’s deputy in 2002. ees were forced to scrub husband, Lyle, who also
tenced to 2 1/3 to seven throughout most of the The pair eluded more plans to head to Mexico worked in the prison.
years in prison, saying she 35-minute sentencing. She than 1,000 searchers who and instead fled on foot af- “I was fearful of Mr. Matt
acted in part out of fear. apologized to the commu- combed the thick woods ter emerging from a man- threatening to kill my hus-
She also might have to nity, her former co-workers and bogs of northern New hole. band and wanting to know
contribute to the $120,000 and law enforcement of- York for much of the next Judge Kevin Ryan noted where my son and mother
in restitution the state is ficers for the weeks of fear three weeks. Matt was killed that the resulting search live,” she told the judge.q
