The mother of three was the first woman to be executed in Georgia in 70 years.
Gissendaner, 47, was convicted of murder as in 1997 she convinced her lover to murder her husband. Her February bid for clemency was rejected, however, she has been granted the right to make another appeal, just hours before her execution. The appeal was denied on Tuesday.
The application for clemency drew support of Pope Francis, who was visiting the United States last week. Francis urged Congress to abolish the death penalty during his visit.
Kelly Gissendaner executed after courts deny stay requests | http://t.co/ousU4klcQn #ICYMI pic.twitter.com/aNI6lrnTKO
— ABC30 Fresno (@ABC30) September 30, 2015
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Gissendaner is one of the three prisoners to be executed in the coming days.
Richard Glossip is due to be executed later Wednesday for hiring his colleague to kill his employer. Alfredo Prieto, a convicted serial killer of Salvadoran origin, will be put to death on Thursday.
Capital punishment is currently legal in 31 US states, while the practice has been abolished in the other 19 states.
More than 800 people have been executed in the United States in the past 15 years. The largest number of executions, 85, occurred in 2000. Thirty-five people were executed in the United States in 2014.
According to the US National Academy of Sciences, the number of people sentenced to death in the United States for crimes they did not commit is estimated at approximately 4 percent.
