About
The last person executed by the state of Maryland in 2005. This murderer was convicted in 1992 for the June 6, 1991, murder of Jane Frances Tyson, a mother and grandmother, in front of two of her grandchildren in Catonsville.
Before Fame
Baker was born as the result of his mother having been raped at age 12 or 13. At 16, he was sentenced to three years in prison for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. In 1978, he was convicted of armed robbery and received 15 years in prison.
Trivia
Since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, Baker was the 1,002nd person executed, the 5th person executed in Maryland, and the 834th person executed by lethal injection. His last meal consisted of breaded fish, pasta marinara, green beans, orange fruit punch, bread, and milk.
Family Life
His mother, stepfather, and two teenage girls physically and sexually abused Baker as a child. At 15, he developed an addiction to alcohol and heroin, and fathered a child with a 28-year-old heroin addict.
Associated With
On November 28, 2005, Cardinal William Henry Keeler, the Archbishop of Baltimore, visited Baker in prison. This marked the first time the cardinal had visited a death row inmate. After meeting Baker, Keeler made a personal plea, together with the two other Catholic bishops in Maryland, to Maryland state Governor Bob Ehrlich to grant clemency and commute Baker's sentence to life imprisonment without parole. Maryland abolished the death penalty in 2013.
