Georgia to pardon woman 60 years after execution News
Georgia to pardon woman 60 years after execution

[JURIST] The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles [official website] has decided to pardon Lena Baker [African American Registry profile], a black maid, 60 years after she was executed for killing a white man, board spokeswoman Scheree Lipscomb said Monday. Baker, found guilty by an all-white, all-male jury in Georgia, claimed she shot E.B. Knight, a man she had been hired to care for, in self defense. The board did not find Baker innocent of the crime, but decided her denial of clemency in 1945 "was a grievous error." Baker is one of 20 women to be executed in Georgia, and the only one to be executed by electrocution. Baker will be officially pardoned at a meeting later this month. AP has more.