She presided over a gathering of the poetic fraternity at the Polish Hearth Club in Kensington, London, on Monday where the Poetry Book Society dished out its TS Eliot Prize of pounds 5,000 to a whispery American beanpole called Mark Doty. Unlike novelists, who tend to pick and choose which award ceremonies to attend, British poets turn out en masse at major verse awards. Through the hot crush you could spot them all: James Fenton and Alan Brownjohn and Peter Porter and Glyn Maxwell and Jamie Mackendrick and Elaine Feinstein and Michael Horovitz ... She may come to regret the governor's decision to reprieve her But she may not. For she has learnt, for the first time in her life, that there is such a thing as mercy, such a thing as love, even in the embrace of strangers..
But then Guinevere issued her reaction through a lawyer." 'Thank God that this has happened'," the lawyer quoted her as saying. "She was relieved - like a big weight had been removed from her.""I, too, felt relief," Ms Jagger said "I was so happy. I knew then that we had been right in sticking to our principles and persisting in our efforts to get the governor to spare her life."Barring further legal scrutiny of Guinevere's case, what now remains of her life does not hold too many charms. "When I heard of the governor's decision I was glad, at first. Then I wondered, 'Oh my God! What will Guinevere think about it?' " Ms Jagger, who has never met Guinevere, said in an interview on Tuesday night. On Tuesday morning, even as Guinevere prepared to take Holy Communion for the last time, the governor delivered his verdict. Guinevere should never be free again, he said, but her crime should not be punishable by death.The celebrations of those who had campaigned to deny Guinevere her date with the executioner's needle were dampened by uneasy feelings of guilt.
The execution was scheduled for one minute after midnight yesterday. Guinevere had ordered her last meal, deep-dish pizza, and had already given away her clothes and possessions to friends on death row. "While she appears to be resigning herself to her fate," Ms Jagger said after the hearing, "what I believe she is really doing, for the third and possibly final time in her life, is engaging in an act of control."Governor Edgar, bombarded by letters from Amnesty members and under pressure from the media and Ms Jagger, retreated to a country cabin at the weekend to ponder his decision. I am competent to waive my right to appeal."Ms Jagger testified at the hearing that she had been very torn about responding to Amnesty's request that she become involved in the case but she believed that as a matter of justice, irrespective of Guinevere's wishes, society could not allow her to be killed. In it she hit out angrily at Ms Jagger by name and others who had campaigned to deprive her of her dying wish "Stop interfering," she said "Stay out of my case Stay out of my life This is not a suicide I committed these crimes I respect the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court. Bianca Jagger, who is on the leadership council of Amnesty, led the final charge last week, co- authoring a letter to Governor Edgar requesting a clemency hearing. The hearing was held last Thursday in Springfield, Illinois, which happens to be Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.Guinevere was not present but she sent a message, which she had tape- recorded in her cell.
When I saw her on Thursday, probably for the last time, we hugged. I asked her, 'If the governor gives clemency, what will be your response, because it's possible, you know?' She said her life was in God's hands and if it was her time, she would go."But off-stage, campaigners were banding together to defer Guinevere's time of death - Amnesty International, American lobbyists against the death penalty and defenders of battered women. But she knows I will fight it to the end and she does not resent me. That would seem, in her eyes, to be begging, and maybe she feels she has begged too often in her life and not got what she wanted."I'm very torn because I respect her decision to die.