GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga — A new execution date has been set for Kelly Gissendaner, Georgia's only woman on death row.
The Gwinnett County woman's last scheduled execution was called off because of problems with the lethal drug used by the state.
Channel 2's Tony Thomas spoke to two of the three Gissendaner children, who are speaking out in a video released over the weekend. They claim their mother has changed and should not be put to death.
"My brothers and I lost one parent," Kayla said. "I don't know that I can lose another one. I don't know that I can handle that."
Gissendaner's daughter Kayla was very emotional in the nearly five-minute-long video, calling changes in her mom "incredible."
"And knowing that this could happen again, that I would have to look my mom in the face again and tell her bye, I don't think I could do it again," Dakota said.
But Dakota and his sister may be forced to do that next Tuesday night.
The Georgia Department of Corrections has set a 7 p.m. execution time for Gissendaner. She's convicted of planning her husband's 1997 murder and then persuading her then-lover, Greg Owen, to carry out the attack. Later, Gissendaner reported her husband, Doug, missing, crying on TV about his disappearance.
"If he was where he could get to a phone, he would call," Gissendaner said.
"Every day, my world is just falling apart," Kayla said.
The Gissendaner children have previously refused interview requests but released the professionally made video through their lawyers, pleading for mercy, saying it's what their dad would have wanted.
"He wouldn't want us to go through any more pain than what we've already experienced," Kayla said. "My brothers and I really want my mom to live. She is all that we have left."
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter told Thomas by phone Monday he feels the case began with the manipulation of Greg Owen and will end with the manipulation of the children.
He says he doesn't know if it will make any difference in the clemency hearings.
WSBTV
