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#famousgraves #truecrime #cemetery #cemeteries #lenabaker

Lena Baker was born on June 1900 near Cutbert, Georgia. Her family were sharecroppers working hard for each other. When she was a child, her and her siblings worked as farm laborers for a living. Throughout the 1940s, Baker has spent her life as a single mother raising her kids. She lived her life penniless until she decided to work with Ernest Knight as his maid.

Ernest Knight is an older disabled white man. He hired Lena Baker to be his employer. Throughout Lena's time working with Ernest, Ernest was heavy drinker and that he often carried a pistol strapped to his shoulder. It wasn't long before a sexual relationship developed between Knight and Baker. When she attempted to extricate herself from this relationship, Knight locked her in his gristmill for several days at a time, has been sexually assaulting Lena. Lena's families and friends have tried to tell authorities but they never bothered to do anything. The sheriff warned Baker to stay away from Knight or that she was going to be thrown in jail.

One night, the two had an encounter and Knight threatened Baker with an iron bar. As Baker tried to escape, she saw his pistol, Knight and Baker,both struggle over the pistol until Baker shot Knight in self defense. Knight dies at the scene. She immediately reported the incident and said she had acted in self-defense. Baker was charged with capital murder.

At the time of the trial, local newspaper labeled her as a "slave woman"by Knight, and that she shot him in self-defense during a struggle. Baker testified that Knight forced her to go with him on that Saturday evening of April 29. The town disliked their sexual relationship and the county sheriff had warned her to stay away from Knight, or risk being sent to jail. But she was afraid of Knight's physical abuse. Knight had forced relations on her even his son assault her warning Baker not to mess with his father. The all-white, all-male jury rejected Baker's plea of self-defense and convicted her of capital murder by the end of the first day of the trial. Lena Baker was found guilty and sentenced to death by electrocution.

Before Lena was executed, these were her last words:
"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. I have nothing against anyone.... I am ready to meet my God."

On March 5, 1945, Baker was executed by the electric chair. She was 44 years old. She was the only woman in the state of Georgia to sent.

Lena Baker’s grave is an behind Mount Vernon Baptist Church, Cuthbert, where she had sung in the choir.