Scott sisters

For the Australian natural history illustrators, see Helena Scott and Harriet Morgan.

Jamie and Gladys Scott, often referred to as the Scott sisters, are two African-American sisters who were convicted of orchestrating a 1993 armed robbery in Forest, Mississippi, after accomplices made a plea deal. Each sister received double life sentences,[1][2] This sentence has been criticized as too severe by a number of civil rights activists and prominent commentators on the grounds that the sisters had no previous criminal record and the robbery netted no more than eleven dollars.[3][4][5]

Their convictions were upheld by the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 1996. The U.S. Supreme Court denied both their petition for appeal in 1997 and an appeal to vacate the conviction in 1998. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour denied a petition for clemency in 2006.[6] On December 29, 2010, Governor Barbour suspended their sentence on the condition that Gladys donate a kidney to her ailing sister, who was suffering kidney failure and required dialysis.[7] The two women were released from prison on January 7, 2011. They moved to Pensacola, Florida. It is anticipated that they will remain on parole and pay a supervision fee to the state of Florida for the rest of their lives.[8]

  1. ^ Joyner, Chris (September 15, 2010), "NAACP backs pardon for Miss. sisters serving life", USA Today, retrieved December 18, 2010
  2. ^ NAACP, Stand with the Scott Sisters, retrieved December 18, 2010
  3. ^ Herbert, Bob (October 12, 2010), "'So Utterly Inhumane'", The New York Times, retrieved December 18, 2010
  4. ^ Herbert, Bob (October 16, 2010), "The Mississippi Pardons", The New York Times, retrieved December 18, 2010
  5. ^ Pitts, Leonard (November 22, 2010), "In Mississippi, 2 sisters may or may not be guilty, but the state assuredly is.", Fort Worth Star-Telegram, retrieved December 18, 2010
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference papa1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference ledger1229 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "The Scott sisters' 'debt to society' and the new Jim Crow | San Francisco Bay View". Sfbayview.com. January 10, 2011. Retrieved December 14, 2012.