Post by CCADP on Aug 16, 2005 6:23:15 GMT -5
Maid pardoned 60 years after execution
The only woman ever executed in Georgia's electric chair is being granted
a posthumous pardon, 60 years after the black maid was put to death for
killing a white man she claimed held her in slavery and threatened her
life.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has decided to pardon Lena Baker
and plans to present a proclamation to her descendants at its August 30
meeting in Atlanta, board spokeswoman Scheree Lipscomb said Monday.
The board did not find Baker innocent of the crime, Lipscomb said. Members
instead found the decision to deny her clemency in 1945 "was a grievous
error, as this case called out for mercy," Lipscomb said.
Baker was sentenced to die following a 1-day trial before an all-white,
all-male jury in Georgia.
"I believe she's somewhere around God's throne and can look down and
smile," said Baker's grandnephew, Roosevelt Curry, who has led the
family's effort to clear her name.
John Cole Vodicka, director of the Georgia-based Prison & Jail Project, a
prison-advocacy group that assisted Baker's descendants with the pardon
request, said he was elated with the decision.
"Although in some ways it's 60 years too late, it's gratifying to see that
this blatant instance of injustice has finally been recognized for what it
was -- a legal lynching," Vodicka said.
During her 1-day trial, Baker testified that E.B. Knight, a man she had
been hired to care for, held her against her will in a grist mill and
threatened to shoot her if she tried to leave. She said she grabbed
Knight's gun and shot him when he raised a metal bar to strike her.
After Baker's execution in 1945, Baker's body was buried in an unmarked
grave behind a small church where she had been a choir member. In the late
1990s, the congregation marked the grave with a cement slab.
Baker supporters have been gathering at her grave every year since 2001 to
mark the date of her execution, and Curry, along with a few dozen
surviving family members, hosted a Mother's Day ceremony at the graveside
in 2003, the same year he requested the pardon.
State records indicate that 20 women have been executed in Georgia, 19 by
hanging and Baker by electrocution. One woman sits on Georgia's death row
today.
(source: Associated Press)
The only woman ever executed in Georgia's electric chair is being granted
a posthumous pardon, 60 years after the black maid was put to death for
killing a white man she claimed held her in slavery and threatened her
life.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has decided to pardon Lena Baker
and plans to present a proclamation to her descendants at its August 30
meeting in Atlanta, board spokeswoman Scheree Lipscomb said Monday.
The board did not find Baker innocent of the crime, Lipscomb said. Members
instead found the decision to deny her clemency in 1945 "was a grievous
error, as this case called out for mercy," Lipscomb said.
Baker was sentenced to die following a 1-day trial before an all-white,
all-male jury in Georgia.
"I believe she's somewhere around God's throne and can look down and
smile," said Baker's grandnephew, Roosevelt Curry, who has led the
family's effort to clear her name.
John Cole Vodicka, director of the Georgia-based Prison & Jail Project, a
prison-advocacy group that assisted Baker's descendants with the pardon
request, said he was elated with the decision.
"Although in some ways it's 60 years too late, it's gratifying to see that
this blatant instance of injustice has finally been recognized for what it
was -- a legal lynching," Vodicka said.
During her 1-day trial, Baker testified that E.B. Knight, a man she had
been hired to care for, held her against her will in a grist mill and
threatened to shoot her if she tried to leave. She said she grabbed
Knight's gun and shot him when he raised a metal bar to strike her.
After Baker's execution in 1945, Baker's body was buried in an unmarked
grave behind a small church where she had been a choir member. In the late
1990s, the congregation marked the grave with a cement slab.
Baker supporters have been gathering at her grave every year since 2001 to
mark the date of her execution, and Curry, along with a few dozen
surviving family members, hosted a Mother's Day ceremony at the graveside
in 2003, the same year he requested the pardon.
State records indicate that 20 women have been executed in Georgia, 19 by
hanging and Baker by electrocution. One woman sits on Georgia's death row
today.
(source: Associated Press)