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Legal Innocence: The Story Of Lena Burnett

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Legal innocence: a convicted prisoner who admits to a killing, but offers a justification for their actions, be it self-defense or the insanity defense to disaffirm the deliberateness and intentionality of their crime. These persons, as a matter of social policy, do not deserve the ultimate penalty. Burnett takes a moment to examine the two types of legal innocence. Self-defense is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as “the protection of one’s person or property against some injury attempted by another. The essential elements of ‘self-defense’ are that defendant does not provoke difficulty and that there must be impending peril without convenient or reasonable mode of escape. The law of ‘self-defense’ justifies an act done in the reasonable belief of immediate danger.” Burnett demonstrates how a 5 foot 5 inch woman might believe that her life is …show more content…

Baker, an African American woman living in Cuthbert, Georgia, during the time of racial segregation, was the only woman to ever be executed in the electric chair by the State of Georgia. Baker was hired as a maid to care for Ernest B. Knight while he recovered from a broken leg yet at the same time a physical relationship begin. Lena who was not in love with Knight but need the benefits that the relationship provided became tired of being his mistress. Knight came to visit Baker at her home on April 29, 1944 after refusing his attempt for a sexual encounter scarily she ran away a spent the night in the woods. On her way home the next morning she was kidnaped by Knight who forced her to go to his gristmill. When she asked to leave he pulled out his pistol and threatened her, Baker lunged at Knight and a struggle began, the gun went off and Knight was dead. Upon leaving the gristmill Baker reported the killing to the local coroner. She was later arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to

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