LENA BAKER, a QUICK CASE of MURDER; the Jury Deliberations PDF Download

Author: Stephen Peace
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781976851759
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description
This is the story of the jury deliberations of Lena Baker; the only woman executed by electrocution in the State of GA. In 1944 Lena was a forty-four year old black woman in Cutherbert, GA who was supposedly having an affair with Earnest C. Knight, a 67 year old white man. After a night of drinking in Earnest Knight's grist mill Lena shot Knight in the side of the head. She said that they had "tusseled" for the gun and she got it away from him. She said he then went toward the side slide door where a piece of iron was located. She was afraid for her life and she shot him. Everyone who testified at her trial was a white male. The jury was also comprised of all white men. The jury deliberated for thirty minutes and found her guilty. There were no objections made at her trial and it was never established what kind of gun was used or who it actually belonged to. She should have probably been found guilty of manslaughter and gotten fifteen years. But because she had killed a white man, and not even a very honorable white man, she was given the death sentence. In a trial the very next day and at the same courthouse, but involving two black men with one killing the other with an ax, the man was tried and found guilty of manslaughter.In August 2005 Lena was given a posthumous pardon by the State of Georgia Pardons & Parole Board. They stated that she had not received a fair trial and should have at the maximum been tried for manslaughter. In 1944 her sin was having an affair with a white man and killing him.This play covers the trial transcript, which has been altered and dramatized, and the "hypothetical" jury deliberations. Because there are so many white men involved in the trial both in testifying and in the deliberations, only four white men are used in the cast. They are double and triple cast in the parts. In the first act the Prosecutor and Defense Attorney are not double cast. During the trial sequence Lena Baker sits on stage alone. Lena is forty-four years old, wears a head scarf, wire rimmed glasses and has a dip of snuff evident in her lower lip. She makes a statement on her behalf, which according to State Law of the time she did not have to swear to or could not be cross-examined on. She was electrocuted in 1945. Her grave in a small Baptist cemetery was unmarked until 2004 for fear of repercussions and racial tensions.