Lena Baker

44-year-old African-American Lena Baker was the first and only woman to be executed in Georgia’s electric chair.

She was convicted of murdering Ernest B. Knight, a gristmill owner in Cuthbert, Georgia, who had employed her as a maid. Knight often mistreated her and on the night of the 29th April 1944 Lena claimed that she’d had to act in self-defense after Knight had locked her in the mill and threatened to beat her. She managed to get a hold of his gun and fired it to prevent him killing her.

Baker was executed on the 5th March 1945, going to the chair calmly whilst proclaiming her innocence. She later received a posthumous pardon from the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles in August 2005. They accepted they had made a serious error in not granting clemency and that Baker was guilty of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder. A movie was made about her life in 2008 titled ‘The Lena Baker Story.’