Mother of 3 set to be executed tonight, despite Pope's plea (Maddie Hanratty/8th period)

Kelly Gissendaner is a mother of three children who convinced her unofficial significant other to murder her husband in 1997. Many have signed a petition to stop this execution, calling Gissendaner a "powerful voice for good", and Pope Francis is also on board. He released a plea to the courts to dismiss the execution altogether, yet states that of course her crimes should not be forgotten nor should they go without punishment. The family of the victim, Douglas, is not silent in this matter. They want the focus of the trial to be on Douglas; he is the victim, after all. However, Gissendaner's children claim their father would not want their mother to be put to death. The execution has been temporarily postponed, and we will see whether Gissendaner gets the death penalty.
I have mixed feelings about Gissendaner being executed. I wouldn't go as far as to say that she is a "powerful voice for good", but my interests are primarily in her children and the amount of trauma they've been through already. The article mentions nothing about CPS stepping into the relationship between they and their mother, so I can only hope their home environment is somewhat pleasant. However, dealing with the death of their own father is not something to be taken lightly, no matter how resilient people say kids are. Much less forgiving their mother for participating in something so cruel. Nonetheless, they have forgiven her, and I don't think losing her, too, would benefit their morale.
Relating this back to U.S. history, this story overall reminds me of Anne Hutchinson. Hutchinson was not a murderer, but she faced the possibility of being executed. She also had a family who depended on her. Not only this, but Gissendaner is facing the same penalties as Hutchinson for much more serious crimes. This gives me hope, because it shows progress in the judicial system as a far as appropriate consequences being paired to the crime at hand. This is a good contrast to come out of unfortunate events.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/29/us/georgia-execution-kelly-gissendaner/index.html