but they have turned her life around. all of that seems to have fallen on deaf ears, bowe in the georgia parole board and the supreme court on the if ted ral side, all the way up to the georgia court of appeals and the supreme court on the state side and they ve all been rejected. we have these live images outside the prison there. jackson, georgia, many gathering outside to show their support. one thing which i find interesting, you mention the pope made this plea. peter denied jesus three times. here in the united states over the next 72 hourser the u.s. will be denying the pope three time. he was here pleading for the sanctity of life and to spare people on death row. he made a personal plea for her here. what is behind this flurry of activity with prisoners being put to death it? s six over the next couple of weeks. that s right. we still have the death penalty here in the u.s. 32 states still awe lie it, although 80% of people put to death in the u.s. is just in
stabbed her husband douglas to death. nbc s gabe gutierrez outside the prison where kelly is serving her sentence. what more, gabe, do we know about this letter sent from the pope? reporter: hi, thomas. good afternoon. pope francis during his visit to the u.s. last week called for a ban on the death penalty and now the archbishop of atlanta is making an appeal on the pontiff s behalf to the georgia parole board that right now is deciding the fate of kelly. she is scheduled to be executed here at 7:00. in that letter, which is just released by representative of her, it says, quote, we re not wishing to minimize the gravity of the crime and sympathizing with the victims, i em ploer you in consideration of the reasons expressed to the board to commute the sentence to one to better express justice and mercy. now, this morning, there was a hearing at the in front of the georgia parole board and three of her grown children
husband, say that she deserves to die for what she did and again the parole board had heard her appeal before. they denied clemency in february. they did agree to hear a last-minute appeal today but within the past few minutes they have issued that decision that they would deny clemency yet again and again she is scheduled to be executed tonight at 7:00. all right. they re denying clemency. she s scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7:00 p.m. gabe gutierrez reporting in georgia, thank you. we re back with more after this. i am totally blind.
my mom to live. she is all that we have left. she took her life experience and what she s been through, what she did and she s helped people. she could be the first woman put to death in georgia in 70 years. nbc s gabe gutierrez has the latest from outside of the prison in jackson, georgia. gabe, what are the parole board s options? reporter: good afternoon. we could get a decision from the parole board at any moment. they do have several options, including commuting her sentence to life without parole. they could delay her execution for up to 90 days. or they can deny her request for clemency, much like they did in february. now, that hearing in atlanta is closed to the public, but her three grown children were at the hearing. they testified for about 45 minutes. now, the board is considering that request. now, as you mentioned, her grown children, they say she deserves mercy after being a model inmate
reporter: yeah. that s right, thomas. in the past few minutes, the decision from the parole board. literally within the past few minutes. it s voted to let the denial of clemency stand. that means that she will be executed tonight at 7:00 here at the prison. again, the parole board denying appeals by her lawyers and even within the last few hours, by the catholic church as we hengsed earlier in this hour, the archbishop of atlanta wrote a letter on behalf of pope francis to the parole board asking them to commute her sentence saying that they wanted a sentence that would more reflect justice and mercy. but as we ve been reporting, her three grown children testified in front of that parole board. they say that she has changed her life in the past 18 years on the death row and a model inmate. again, her other parts of her family, the relatives of her