Josefa Segovia AKA Juanita

Better known as Juanita, Josefa Segovia was a Mexican American woman, the first and only woman to be hung in California. She was hanged on September 9, 1850 (same day as California's recognition as a state of the United States) in Downieville, California.

A man named Joe Cannon and his drunken friends went around town causing trouble. At one point, they went to Josefa's house and her boyfriend/husband was not home. She knew that they meant to cause trouble and harm. She was able to protect herself from harm, but Cannon went back to her house the next day. His intentions for returning were unclear, but it is said that she took a knife from underneath her clothing and stabbed his sternum and he then died instantly. The story goes that she went into hiding but that didn't last long.

Josefa was thrown out into the street and was put on trial immediately. She had a defense lawyer from San Francisco but he was ridiculed and bullied by the mob and was threatened until he left town. At the same time, a doctor examined her and determined that she was in the first trimester of her pregnancy. He let the townspeople know and they didn't care. They wanted her dead. She was sentenced to a hanging.

One elderly man who remembered this incident said that she did not show fear and that she possibly could have been saved if her friends took her down right after they cut the rope. But, they didn't and she died.

http://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-news/yesterdays-crimes-lynching-a-woman-in-gold-country/