Here's Your Death Penalty
On this day in 1945, Lena Baker became the first and only woman to be executed by electrocution in Georgia.
Baker was charged with capital murder for killing her employer, Ernest Knight, who told Baker that he would kill her before she would ever leave again. While entering the execution chamber at the Georgia State Prison, Baker said: “What I done, I did in self-defense. I have nothing against anyone. I am ready to meet my God.”
In 2005, 60 years after her execution, the Georgia Parole Board issued Baker a full and unconditional pardon.
Yet another reason to abolish our barbaric death penalty system, along with all the false imprisonment cases, cases of coersed confessions, and DNA evidence showing wrong convictions. Not to mention that studies show the death penalty does nothing to reduce similar crimes, costs more than life imprisonment, and gives no chance for rehabilitation.
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