Maid pardoned 60 years after execution

[Crazy Guggenheim]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/08/15/maid.pardon.ap/index.html

snip

ALBANY, Georgia (AP) -- 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 one-day trial before an all-white, all-male jury in Georgia.

snip

[Swamp Rat]

1. "End Capital Punishment!"

eom

[bliss_eternal]

2. Couldn't have said it better...

That poor woman lost her life, for a crime she didn't commit. Posthumous pardon? Can they give her her life back?

[Swamp Rat]

3. Isn't "posthumous pardon" really an oxymoron?

:shrug:

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Swamp Rat]

5. Surreal

[Esra Star]

6. I think they're saying that she did kill the guy, but...

the punishment was wrong as there was a degree of
justification for the murder.

[GoBlue]

7. I'm wonder if Lena is 'tickled pink'?

Perhaps it would have been meaningful if The State of Georgia had condemned the judge and jury instead.

[Catherine Vincent]

8. That poor woman.

Sounds like it was self defense to me. :-(

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. That was a jury of her peers?