Martin Weller - Witness to an Execution Lyrics

Rhonda Cook recounts what it is like being in the chamber
When death row is about to take a life
She said the singing is what I will always remember
About the execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner

Her voice was joyful and light
As she sang the first verse of "Amazing Grace"
By the second, though, the 47-year-old woman was dying
Struggling to sing as the lethal injection drug took hold

I was left with the thought that her song was to remind us
Of how she saw her life
Kelly planned her husband's murder
Then spent her final years in prison trying to find Christ

I have been a media witness for 14 executions
Lethal injection and electrocution in one case
For the most part, there is a sameness about the people dying
But this one took me to another place

There were pleas from her supporters
In the days before the deed was done
The first woman for 70 years to be put to death in Georgia
I would say, she was a special one

She did not commit the murder
And her spiritual rehabilitation in jail
Led many to believe her soul had been saved
Clemency not death should have been passed down