In 1993 Jamie and Gladys Scott were accused of being the masterminds of a robbery that allegedly netted eleven dollars. The sisters, twenty-three and nineteen years old at the time, were each sentenced to double life sentences in 1994.The actual robbers, teenage boys, were given deals if they implicated the Scott sisters. They did, and received sentences of only ten months. In 1998, one of the robbers signed an affidavit stating that the Scott sisters were not involved in the robbery, but this move failed to persuade the court that the sisters were innocent.
National and international attention has been focused on the case, but the harsh sentence stood until one of the sisters developed kidney disease and had to undergo dialysis treatment at a cost of $190,000 a year. Gladys Scott offered to give her sister Jamie a kidney, with no strings attached. The offer was not considered until Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, perhaps reacting to mounting public criticism as to why the sisters were being held so long for an eleven dollar robbery, suddenly decided to take Gladys Scott up on her offer. Governor Barbour proclaimed that he would suspend the sisters’ sentence if the kidney donation took place.
Rather than citing the extremely harsh punishment the sisters were given, the Governor used the high cost of dialysis treatment as the reason the sisters would be released. The sisters and their supporters are not quibbling as to the reason they will be released. After serving 16 years, and not being eligible for parole until 2014, they are happy to be given the opportunity to be freed from prison. Their release might open the door for other Mississippi prisoners who are on dialysis and not considered a threat to the community.
Sources: Huffington Post and Jackson Clarion-Ledger
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