The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has announced that it will issue a for­mal par­don this month for Lena Baker (pic­tured), the only woman exe­cut­ed in the state dur­ing the 20th cen­tu­ry. The doc­u­ment, signed by all five of the cur­rent board mem­bers, will note that the parole board­’s 1945 deci­sion to deny Baker clemen­cy and allow her exe­cu­tion was ​“a griev­ous error, as this case called out for mer­cy.” Baker, an African American, was exe­cut­ed for the mur­der of Ernest Knight, a white man who hired her . Baker was tried, con­vict­ed, and sen­tenced to die in one day by an all-white, all-male jury. Baker claimed she shot Knight in self-defense after he locked her in his grist­mill and threat­ened her with a met­al pipe. The par­don notes that Baker ​“could have been charged with vol­un­tary manslaugh­ter, rather than mur­der, for the death of E.B. Knight.” The aver­age sen­tence for vol­un­tary manslaugh­ter is 15 years in prison. Baker’s pic­ture and her last words are cur­rent­ly dis­played near the retired elec­tric chair at a muse­um at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville. 

(Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 16, 2005). See Race, Clemency and Women.

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