The New York Times has a remarkable story today about a death-row inmate in Georgia who has completed a certificate in Theological Studies and has corresponded with and met the great German theologian Juergen Moltmann. She is scheduled to be executed on Monday after her final clemency appeal was rejected by the state board.

There’s more to the story. Bethany Foster of Mercy Junction in Chattanooga provide a deeper portrait of Kelly Gissendaner:

“Every man Kelly’s ever come in contact with has done something horrible to her,” Kara Tragesser said. “From her stepfather who started molesting her when she was 9 years old to the man who raped her and got her pregnant when she was a teenager, to the judge and the DA and now the five men on the clemency board who decided to kill her in a meeting she wasn’t even allowed to attend.”

It’s a story of grace and humanity in the midst of horror. Gissendaner has been in solitary confinement for eighteen years but the women who served time with her speak of her care and compassion. Read it all here:  Former inmates say fight to save Gissendaner is only the beginning.