THE LENA BAKER CASE

Today marks the 126th anniversary of the birth of Lena Baker, the only woman to be executed by electrocution in the state of Georgia.

Lena was African-American, one of four children born to a family of sharecroppers jut outside of Cuthbert, Georgia.  As a child, she and her siblings worked as farm laborers.  By the 1940s she had three children and worked as a maid.  In 1944, she began working for Ernest Knight, an older white man who owned a gristmill, and had broken his leg.  Knight was a cruel man who repeatedly sexually assaulted Lena and would keep her locked up for days as a virtual slave.  There seemed to be little that Lena could do about her situation.  Although Knight's son and many townspeople were aware of the situation and disapproved, Knight refused to give up his "relationship" with Lena.  Not only was Knight physically abusive, but his son had also beaten Lena at least once in a effort to stop the relationship; Lena tried to get away that night and slept in the woods, going into Cuthbert the next morning.  Knight found her and locked her in the gristmill, returning a while later.

When Knight returned Lena told him that she was leaving.  Knight threatened her her with an iron bar.  As she tried to escape, they struggled over his pistol and the gun went off, killing Knight.  Lena then reported the incident to the county coroner, who had been one of Lena's previous employers.  The date was April 29, 1944.

Lena was arrested for murder.  An all-male, all-white jury discounted her plea of self defense and convicted Lena of murder -- a charge that carried an automatic death sentence.  Georgia law in 1944 was heavy sided against African-Americans and none were legally allowed to sit on the jury.  The judge in the case was William "Two Gun" Worrill, who famously kept a brace of pistols in open view on his bench.  Lena's court-appointed lawyer, W. L. Ferguson, filed an appeal and then immediately dropped Lena as a client.  Georgia's governor at the time, Ellis Arnell, granted Lena a 60-day reprieve so the state Board of Pardons and Parole could review the case; they determined there was no case for clemency.

Lena was executed on March 5, 1945, and was buried in an unmarked grave behind Mount Vernon Baptist Church, where she had sung in the choir.  Her last words were:

"What I done, I did in self-defense, or I would have been killed myself.  Where I was I could not overcome it.  God has forgiven me.  I have nothing against anyone.  I picked cotton for Mr. Pritchett, and he has been good to me.  I am ready to go.  I am one in the number.  I am ready to meet my God.  I have a very strong conscience."

And there things stood for over fifty years.

In 1998, congregants of the church provided a simple gravestone for Lena.  In 2003, descendants began to mark the anniversary of her death and Mother's Day at her graveside.  Also in 2003, Lena's grandnephew, Roosevelt Curry, with the assistance of the Prison and Jail Project, an advocacy group, requested an official pardon from the state of Georgia.  

Justice can work slowly.  In 2005, a full and unconditional pardon was issued by the Parole Board -- sixty years after her execution.  The Board stated that they could not find Lena innocent, but that she should have been tried for manslaughter -- a charge that carried only fifteen years -- rather than murder; one wonders whether they considered her argument of self-defense at all.