Black People : LENA BAKER Historic Racial unjustice

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Lena Baker
Lena Baker: A Historic Case of Racial Injustice
The Story of the Only Woman Ever Executed by the State of Georgia

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Baker was born and raised in Cuthbert, Georgia to a family of poor black sharecroppers. Her mother, Queenie, worked for a farmer named J.A. Cox, chopping cotton.

In 1941, E.Knight hired Baker to care for him after he broke his leg.
On the night of April 30, 1944, Lena Baker gave her version of the story to what happen.

Knight had come to her house drunk and asked her to come to the mill. She did not want to go and tried stalling him by asking for money to go buy some whiskey. He gave her some money and she went to the "colored bar" on Dawson Street to buy alcohol, but found it closed. She waited there for a while hoping that Knight would leave her house, but when she returned, he was still there. She was forced to accompany him to the mill, but escaped and hid in the underbrush. She bought some whiskey and went to sleep in the woods near the convict camp. On waking the next morning she decided to go to the mill, sure this was the last place that Knight would go; this was exactly where Knight was, however. He held her prisoner for several hours, even through several hours of his absence, when he attended a "singing" with his son. He returned and told Baker he would kill her if she tried to "quit" him.Baker was the only living witness to the details of what happened, but in the ensuing struggle, Knight's pistol went off, hitting him in the head and instantly killing him.Baker claimed she acted in self-defense.

Trial and execution

Lena Baker was charged with capital murder and stood trial on August 14, 1944, presided over by Judge William "Two Gun" Worrill, who kept a pair of pistols on his judicial bench in plain view. The all-white male jury convicted her by the end of the afternoon. Her court-appointed counsel, W.L. Ferguson, filed an appeal but then dropped Baker as a client. Governor Ellis Arnall granted Lena a 60-day reprieve so that the Board of Pardons and Parole could review the case, but clemency was denied in January 1945. Baker was transferred to Reidsville State Prison on February 23, 1945.
On entering the execution chamber, Baker calmly sat in the electric chair, called Old Sparky, and said "What I done, I did in self-defense. I have nothing against anyone. I'm ready to meet my God." She was buried at Mount Vernon Baptist Church.

In 2001, members of Baker's family petitioned to have a pardon granted by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, seeing the original verdict as racist. This was granted in 2005, with the Parole Board, granting her a full and unconditional pardon, suggesting a verdict of manslaughter, which would have carried a 15 year sentence, would have been more appropriate


wow How unjustice was that and all she went through before they took her life ??

Read more at Suite101: Lena Baker: A Historic Case of Racial Injustice: The Story of the Only Woman Ever Executed by the State of Georgia below.

http://www.suite101.com/content/lena-baker-a-historic-case-of-racial-injustice-a98040#ixzz11AamBAjx
 

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