Good morning….

This week, the Georgia air has been heavy and conflict-ridden. After a five-hour delay pending final appeals to spare her life, Georgia death row inmate Kelly Gissendaner was executed early Wednesday morning for her role in the killing of her husband 18 years ago. She was the first female executed in the state of Georgia since 1945. Should she have been killed by lethal injection or should she have lived out her remaining years incarcerated?

Many side with the family of Gissendaner’s slain husband, Douglas, who have stated: “Kelly planned and executed Doug’s murder. She targeted him and his death was intentional. Kelly chose to have her day in court and after hearing the facts of this case, a jury of her peers sentenced her to death. As the murderer, she’s been given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded to Doug, who, again, is the victim here. She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life. His life was not hers to take.”

Many side with Doug and Kelly’s three children who have reconciled with their mother over the years. CNN reported on Wednesday, “More than 90,000 people signed a petition urging Gov. Nathan Deal to halt the execution, claiming the mother of three has turned her life around and calling her a ‘powerful voice for good.’ ‘While incarcerated, she has been a pastoral presence to many, teaching, preaching and living a life of purpose,’ the petition states. ‘Kelly is a living testament to the possibility of change and the power of hope. She is an extraordinary example of the rehabilitation that the corrections system aims to produce.'” (http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/29/us/georgia-execution-kelly-gissendaner/index.html)

A powerful voice for good.
A pastoral presence to many.
Teaching, preaching and living a life of purpose.
A living testament to the possibility of change and the power of hope.

Regardless on which side we stand, these words sum up the legacy we each hope to leave as …the body is put back in the same ground it came from and the spirit returns to God, who first breathed it, Ecclesiastes 12:7 (MSG),

Sue