Baker claimed she shot Knight in self-defense after months of abuse and assault. She was tried by an all-white jury in a single day with no defense witnesses and sentenced to death. She was executed on March 5, 1945. Georgia granted her a posthumous pardon in 2005.
Background
Lena Baker was an African American woman who became the only person executed in Georgia’s electric chair. She was convicted of murdering her white employer, Ernest Knight, in 1944.
Contemporary Georgia news coverage and court records
Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles (2005 pardon)
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No other flagged graves found within 5 miles of this location in our current database.