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(2008 - USA)

Lena Baker was an African American maid who was executed for murder by the State of Georgia in 1945 for killing her employer, Ernest Knight. At her trial she claimed that he had imprisoned and threatened to shoot her should she attempt to leave, whereupon she took his gun and shot him. Although Knight was not liked in the town, a white man had been killed by a black woman, something that was intolerable to the segregationist townsfolk Lena Baker was charged with capital murder and stood trial on August 14, 1944. The all-white male jury convicted her and she was sentenced to death.
In the 2000s, members of her family petitioned to have a pardon granted by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, seeing the original verdict as racist. This was granted in 2005, with the Parole Board suggesting a verdict of manslaughter would have been more appropriate.
 

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Cast

• Tichina Arnold......................Lena Baker
• Peter Coyote.................Ernest B. Knight
• Michael Rooker.............................Sheriff
• Beverly Todd....................Lena's mother

Credits

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Production Notes:

Hollywood Reporter, November 2007:
Filmmakers in southern Georgia are unearthing a forgotten chapter in black history and revitalizing their local economy with the fact-based indie feature "The Lena Baker Story." Tichina Arnold ("Wild Hogs," the CW's "Everybody Hates Chris") plays Baker, the first Georgia woman sent to the electric chair. She became a virtual sex slave to her white employer (Peter Coyote) and killed him, claiming self-defense. Baker was pardoned by the state two years ago, about 60 years after her execution. Michael Rooker co-stars as the sheriff who arrested her, and Beverly Todd plays her mother.

Writer-director-producer Ralph Wilcox's film, also produced by Dennis Johnson, marks an important step toward revitalizing one of the poorest districts in the U.S. The $2.5 million biopic is the first feature from local production groups Laughing Crow Entertainment and Schuster's Cash and is the first project filmed in the new 22,000-square-foot Jokara-Micheaux production facility in Colquitt, Ga.

"The film is a cradle-to-grave story that offers a real perspective on Lena as opposed to just one incident," Wilcox said. "Race does play a part, but this story is really about a woman born between a rock and a hard place."

Wilcox adapted the screenplay from Lela Bond Philips' eponymous biography and hired crew members from Los Angeles and several southern states. He's now in discussions with indie distributors for a theatrical release.

Production Photos

Movie Stills

Reviews:

Moviescribes.com: 
"Peter Coyote, a consummate actor, plays the crude and controlling Elliot Arthur with great finesse, making us believe that he really feels that he has the absolute right to possess Lena in any way that he chooses."
 

[ The Official Peter Coyote Web Site ]