Lena Baker

Who was Lena Baker?

Lena Baker was an African American maid who was executed for murder by the state of Georgia in 1945 for killing her employer, Ernest Knight, in 1944. At her trial she said that he had imprisoned and threatened to shoot her should she try to leave. She took his gun and shot him. Baker was the only woman to be executed by electrocution in Georgia.

In 2005 Baker was granted a full and unconditional pardon by the state of Georgia, 60 years after her execution. The movie The Lena Baker Story is about her life.