Tipping the scales of justice over 70 years later: Lena Baker’s story still being told

CUTHBERT, Ga. (WALB) - A pardoning decades in the making. The story of Lena Baker, the only woman put to death by an electric chair in the state of Georgia, is still being set straight in the small town of Cuthbert.

“It was sort of the best-kept secret in Cuthbert,” said Lela Phillips, author of the Lena Baker Story.

In 1941, Baker worked for a white man by the name of Earnest Knight. The job turned into a prison for her, as Knight would often sexually assault her and hold her against her will. But on April 30, 1944, Knight was shot in the head after he and Lena tussled over a pistol while Lena was trying to escape.

Baker immediately told the coroner what happened and was charged with murder — not knowing that her fate was already sealed.

The exact courtroom where Baker was tried for murder is still standing. The trial only took four hours, with jury deliberation only taking 30 minutes which led to her guilty verdict. The jury only consisted of white men.

And then just steps away from the courthouse, Baker was locked up in jail.

Less than a year later, she was transported to a Georgia prison where she was electrocuted.

“When asked if she had a last statement at her execution Lena replied: ‘What I done, I did in self-defense or I would have been killed myself. Where I was, I could not overcome it. God has forgiven me,’ Phillips said.

She was shocked several times for six minutes until she died. But to this day, Baker’s name is still echoed throughout the streets of Cuthbert.

“It’s history here and it’ll always be history here,” said Randolph County Sheriff Eddie Fairbanks.

60 years after Lena’s death, she was posthumously pardoned, a pardon many argue came too late.

Phillips said one thing she didn’t include in her book was that when Baker’s body returned home, elementary school students cut their hair to help make a wig for Baker. Her hair was shaved off right before her execution so the shocks had a clear path to her body.

“It’s a very sad story,” she said.

Fairbanks said Baker’s story has continued to tip the scales of justice.

“Now we fight each and every day in Cuthbert and anywhere else in Georgia that everyone receives a fair trial,” he said.

Phillips said her story resonates with people not just in her hometown, but also nationwide.

“She certainly I think enlightened the court system about the ills of society that we had at one time and perhaps we still have somewhat today,” she said.

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