Scott Sisters
The Afro-American sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott, engl. the Scott Sisters , were sentenced to life imprisonment in the US state of Mississippi in 1994 . According to the verdict, they were involved in a $ 11 robbery and no people were injured.
Charge
The Scott sisters allegedly lured two men to a place in the woods in 1993 where three other youths, also black, armed with a shotgun, stole the men's wallets. At the time, Jamie Scott was 21 years old and Gladys Scott was 19 years old. Neither of them had a criminal record.
The sisters denied involvement in the crime - allegedly they were dragged into the case as part of an apology deal between the robbers and the judiciary. The youngest of the robbers was 14 years old at the time of the crime. He testified in court that he was threatened - if he did not agree to an apology agreement, he would be sent to a particular prison, known for its violent conditions, where there was a certain probability that he would be raped.
The lawyer who represented the sisters in court was later revoked for another reason. The Mississippi Supreme Court certified him "lack of diligence" and "failure to communicate with his clients".
Reactions to the judgment
Commentator Bob Herbert described in the New York Times the evidence of the sisters' involvement in the robbery as "contradicting at best."
The Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts concluded: "Whatever is thought to justify this absurd judgment - the deeper reason is: the sisters Scott are black women in the poorest state in the country."
Early release
The civil rights organization NAACP asked the governor of Mississippi in 2010 for a pardon.
The prosecutor of the trial, Ken Turner, saw the sisters still involved in the robbery in September 2010, but considered a suspension of the sentence to be appropriate ("sentences to be commuted").
Governor Haley Barbour pardoned the sisters in December 2010 on condition that Gladys donated the kidney she needed to her sister Jamie. A conditional release would come into question in 2014 at the earliest.
In January 2011, both sisters were released from custody in view of the planned organ transplant.
literature
- Jamie and Gladys Scott: The Scott Sisters. Resurrecting Life from Double Life Sentences . Candy Publishing, 2015. ISBN 978-0692465110 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pete Kotz: Jamie & Gladys Scott Got Life for an $ 11 Robbery; Should They Be Released? September 15, 2010
- ↑ Chris Joyner: NAACP backs pardon for Miss. sisters serving life USA Today, September 14, 2010 (English)
- ↑ Susan Donaldson James: Supporters Applaud Plan to Release Scott Sisters in Kidney Deal ABCNews, December 30, 2010
- ↑ Constantino Diaz-Duran: Haley Barbour Pardons the Scott Sisters' Life Sentence December 30, 2010 (English)
- ↑ Timothy Williams: Jailed Sisters Are Released for Kidney Transplant New York Times, January 7, 2001 (English)
- ^ Gallery of Scott Sisters release Jackson Advocate, accessed July 22, 2018
- ↑ Jailed sisters released early on condition they had kidney transplant are 'too fat for surgery' Daily Mail , February 24, 2011 (English)