Kelly Gissendaner
American murderer (1968–2015)
Kelly Renée Gissendaner (née Brookshire; March 8, 1968 – September 30, 2015) was an American woman who was executed by the U.S. state of Georgia. Gissendaner had been convicted of orchestrating the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner (December 14, 1966 – February 7, 1997). At the time of the murder, Gissendaner was 28, and her husband was 30. After her conviction, and until her execution, Gissendaner was the only woman on death row in Georgia.
Early life and family
Kelly Renée Brookshire was born on March 8, 1968 into a poor cotton-farming family in Georgia. Her parents divorced when she was a child and her mother soon married again. In sworn affidavits, family members and friends attested that she had been molested by her stepfather as well as by other men during her childhood and adolescence. During her senior year of high school, she reported being date raped. Her first son was born weeks after her graduation from high school. In 1987, at the age of 19, Kelly married her first husband Jeff Banks.
The public source identifies “Kelly Gissendaner” as american murderer (1968–2015). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kelly, Gissendaner and American.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kelly Gissendaner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.