Donate to the Registry,
May 5

Lena Baker in 1944
On this date in 2005, Lena Baker, an African-American woman, was pardoned posthumously for a murder.


In 1944, Baker was sentenced to death in Randolph County for murder. She is the only woman ever put to death in Georgia's electric chair. Baker had been a maid in the household of white employer E. B. Knight. She allegedly killed Knight because he threatened her at a Cuthbert Grist mill. An all-white jury convicted her in a one-day trial.

Sixty years later, in 2005, Georgia's pardon and parole board ruled a "grievous error" occurred when she was denied clemency in 1945. The board decided mercy was in order in such a case. In the years before the pardon, Baker's family had lobbied publicly for the pardon.

Reference:
Baker executed



Crime TV
 

    

The African American Registry®, 
a resource on African American History, is a 
501(c) (3) non-profit education organization
Our Mailing address is  
P.O.  Box  19441
Minneapolis, MN  55419
Fax:  (612) 825-0598
Email us at info@aaregistry.org

The African American Registry® Copyright 2005, 2006
Privacy Policy