TICHINA ARNOLD PUTS COMEDY TO THE SIDE TO STAR IN HER FIRST DRAMA LEAD-TITLE ROLE IN 'THE LENA BAKER STORY.'

Here's a movie I can't wait to see. Everybody Hates Chris star Tichina Arnold will take on her first big-screen dramatic title-lead role of her acting career when she stars in the independent film, The Lena Baker Story, about the first woman in the state of Georgia sent to the electric chair. The 44-year-old African American woman became a virtual sex slave to her white employer and killed him, claiming self-defense. "The film is a cradle-to-grave story that offers a real perspective on Lena as opposed to just one incident," writer-director-producer Ralph Wilcox tells the Hollywood Reporter. "Race does play a part, but this story is really about a woman torn between a rock and a hard place."

In 2005, Baker's story made national headlines after the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles announced it would grant a full pardon to Lena Baker and present a proclamation to her descendants at the board's Aug. 30 meeting in Atlanta. The board did not find Baker innocent of the crime, but instead found the decision to deny her clemency in 1945 was in error. Baker was sentenced to death following a one-day trial before an all-white, all-male jury in Georgia. She didn't have a praying chance. In the trial transcripts, Baker testified that her employer, E.B. Knight, held her against her will in a grist mill and threatened to shoot her if she tried to escape. She testified she grabbed his gun and shot him when he tried to hit her with a metal bar.

According to the Reporter, the $2.5 million project is the first filmed in the new 22,000-square-foot Jokara-Micheaux production facility in Colquitt, Ga, marking an important step toward revitalizing one of the poorest districts in the United States. As director of the Southwest Georgia Film Commission, Wilcox obtained about $1 million from government grants to build the studio.

Beverly Todd will play Baker's mother, while Peter Coyote stars as her victim. Michael Rooker will portray the sheriff who arrested her.

To read the full details on Lena Baker and her execution, click here.