Lena Baker [SEP] place of birth
, chronicling the events of her life, trial, and execution.
Early life.
Lena Baker was born June 8, 1900, to a family of sharecroppers and raised near Cuthbert, Georgia. Her family, which included three siblings, moved to the county seat when she was a child. As a youth, she and her siblings all worked as farm laborers; she chopped cotton for a farmer named J.A. Cox.
By the 1940s, Baker was the mother of three children and worked as a maid to
the fatal shooting of her employer, Ernest Knight, during a struggle. He was an abusive drunk who had forced the 44-year-old woman into a sexual relationship and sometimes held her at his place against her will. She was posthumously pardoned in 2005.
Cast.
- Tichina Arnold as Lena Baker
- Peter Coyote as Ernest Knight
- Michael Rooker as Randolph County Sheriff
- Beverly Todd as Lena's Mother
- Randy McDowell as Lyle Jacobs
- Tom Huff as Ken Thomas
- L. Warren