Measured out with coffee spoons: The Scott Sisters of Mississippi

On December 29, 2010, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour suspended the double life sentences of each of the two Scott Sisters of Forest, MS. Jamie and Gladys Scott had by then served sixteen years for their conviction for their roles in an armed robbery in which $11.00 was stolen and no one was hurt. They have always maintained their innocence. Activists have worked on their behalf for years, for Jamie's proper health care and for them to receive pardons. Jamie and Gladys Scott were released into freedom from prison on Friday, January 7, 2011, on the condition that Gladys, the younger of the two, donate one of her kidneys to Jamie, who is in Stage 5 renal failure and requires daily dialysis. Jamie's health care, while substandard in prison, still cost the state of Mississippi more than $200,000 a year. I leave it to others to decide the ethics of the conditions Barbour has imposed. I have my thoughts, which I may share someday, but right now I am just overjoyed that Jamie and Gladys are free!

The Scott Sisters celebrate their freedom with Ben Jealous of the NAACP

For years activists, including me, have worked for their release by calling and writing the Governor's office and the office of many prison and parole officials. But who are the Scott sisters? I include below a note I wrote for Facebook on August 31, 2010 explaining their case.

Who are the Scott Sisters?

On the morning of Christmas Eve, 1993, sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott of Forest, Mississippi, drove to a mini-mart near their home. Jamie was 22 and Gladys was 19. On their way back, their car broke down, and they were given a ride by two young men, one of whom they knew. It was not a peaceful ride home. Jamie and Gladys asked the men, Johnny Ray Hayes and Mitchell Duckworth, to stop the car to let them go to the bathroom. Another car came upon them with three young male occupants, the Patrick cousins, who robbed Hayes and Duckworth of a total of $11.00. The police accused Jamie and Gladys Scott of being accomplices of the robbers rather than friends of the victims. They said the the women had set up Hayes and Duckworth for the Patricks.

Jamie and Gladys Scott

So in October, 1994, both Jamie Scott and Gladys Scott were found guilty of armed robbery and given two consecutive life sentences for an $11.00 robbery they didn’t commit. The women had never been in any trouble before, and this conviction was based on very thin and contradictory evidence. The Prosecution argued that the sisters had arranged in advance to set the men up to be robbed by the young men. There was much conflicting testimony for the prosecution, and the sisters’ defense attorney called but one witness. Most witnesses against the sisters later claimed to have been coerced. The trial lasted 2 days and the jury deliberated 30 minutes.

The three young men who had committed the robbery were offered a plea bargain and each received a sentence of 10 months. One of these was a 14-year-old who was later told that if he signed a statement stating that the Scott sisters helped in the robbery, a statement he says he never read, he could go home the next morning. He was told that if he did not sign the statement, he would instead go to prison where he would be raped and made “into a woman.” He signed. The sisters were not offered a plea bargain.

The two victims did not implicate the Scott sisters at the time of the crime or the trial, but they changed their story one year later to charge the young women. All three of the convicted robbers testified against the sisters at trial but later recanted their testimony. Their testimony was thin, shaky, and contradictory.

The sisters appealed their convictions on grounds of insufficient evidence, but they lost. Their appeal was denied. There were other appeals. All were denied.

Jamie and Gladys Scott’s mother, Mrs. Evelyn Rascoe, who now lives in Florida and is raising their children, thinks she knows why this has happened. A member of the family had previously turned State’s evidence against Scott County Sheriff Glenn Warren in a bootlegging case in that dry county. The corruption may even have spread to the court system. Payback had been promised.

In 1998, one of the three young men convicted for the robbery signed an affidavit stating that the Scotts were not involved. There are now at least 3 such affidavits. But they remain in prison. It’s been 16 years. And they have consecutive life.

Both young women were healthy when they went to prison, but Jamie now suffers from extremely poor health, including Stage 5 renal failure. She requires weekly kidney dialysis, and she has other life threatening illnesses that she has developed in the years since 1993. The dialysis port on her arm required surgery last week and it was scheduled one morning for 8:30; however, officials at Central Mississippi Correctional Center did nothing toward getting her to the hospital. “Free the Scott Sisters,” which has a Facebook page, sprang into action, notifying all its members, asking them to call and email certain prison officials. The prison was overwhelmed with calls and emails, and Jamie got her surgery at 11:00 am. But that was one day. Her health care is irregular and undependable, and her condition is dire. All this for $11.

And there are ripples. This month Jamie’s son Terrance was arrested for car-jacking and robbery. All his life he has said that if his mother had to die in prison, he thought he should die in prison, too. What a waste of another young life.

Never doubt what one person can do. Jamie’s day of surgery proves what a difference individuals can make. Jamie needs public pressure to receive the health care she requires to stay alive. And of course, both Jamie and Gladys need legal help. The Mississippi Attorney General has recently appointed an investigator for this case, a major victory for the sisters and everyone who cares about them.