| | The American editions of this story are a little sanitised. In The Guardian (London) there are a few additional tidbits -
The decision to refuse Baker clemency in 1945, said a spokeswoman for Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, Scheree Lipscomb, "was a grievous error, as this case called out for mercy".
As Baker sat in the electric chair on March 5 1945, she said: "I am ready to meet my God." Moments earlier she had said: "What I done, I did in self-defence or I would have been killed myself. Where I was, I could not overcome it."
Her last words, along with her picture, are displayed near the now-retired electric chair at a museum at Georgia state prison in Reidsville.
Baker, a mother of three, often drank with Knight, and the two had a sexual relationship that sparked animosity in the small southern town of Cuthbert during the segregation era.
Knight's son, Eugene, testified he had warned Baker to stay away from his father. Later, he told the court he had found the two together, and: "I took her and beat her until I just did leave life in her."
If you wish to read the whole report it can be found at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1550650,00.html
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