Gov. Barbour suspends sentence of the Scott sisters (served 16 years for stealing $11)

[Hamlette]

Gladys and Jamie Scott are returning home for the first time in 16 years.

This evening, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour suspended their sentences -- handed down in the extreme and biased ruling of Judge Marcus Gordon that condemned each of the women to double life sentences for an $11 robbery.

(From an email received just now from the NAACP)

Wonder if Barbour is trying to mend some fences?

[niyad]

1. how long has he been governor? and just now doing this?

[Contrary1]

2. "An indefinite suspension of sentence..."

Strange wording.

"...“To date, the sisters have served 16 years of their sentences and are eligible for parole in 2014. Jamie Scott requires regular dialysis, and her sister has offered to donate one of her kidneys to her. The Mississippi Department of Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society. Their incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation, and Jamie Scott’s medical condition creates a substantial cost to the State of Mississippi.

“The Mississippi Parole Board reviewed the sisters’ request for a pardon and recommended that I neither pardon them, nor commute their sentence. At my request, the Parole Board subsequently reviewed whether the sisters should be granted an indefinite suspension of sentence, which is tantamount to parole, and have concurred with my decision to suspend their sentences indefinitely."

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20101229/NEWS/101229013/Barbour-Scott-sisters-sentences-to-be-lifted

[katanalori]

3. Send a "Wecome Home" message to the Scott sisters:

http://action.naacp.org/page/s/WelcomeHome?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=NAACP&utm_campaign=20101229ScottSistersVictory&source=20101229ScottSistersVictory

[grasswire]

4. so the taxpayers have paid a million dollars to imprison them for $11

A million dollars, at least, to incarcerate the two women for sixteen years. The going rate is between $30,000 - $50,000 per year.

Times two.

Times 16.

[TheMadMonk]

5. It's not the $11, it's how the $11 was found to have been obtained.

Luring their victims into a trap, clubbing them with a shotgun, and stealing their wallets. It wouldn't matter if it was 11 Turkish Lira.

It may well be that there was unfair bias in the Judge's sentencing. However, do not let yourself be trapped into thinking these women blameless.

[Hannah Bell]

9. No clubbing noted in this account. Where did you get the "clubbing with shotgun" piece?

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2010/09/jamie_gladys_scott_got_life_fo.php

The men who held the guns went free after a few months -- because they ratted on the women. Surely if there were "clubbing" involved they would have gotten more than a few months.

The women had no priors.

The same set of facts here too: & no clubbing with a shotgun or anything else.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-09-14-scott-sisters_N.htm.

[TheMadMonk]

10. Clubbing reported here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4676814

[demmiblue]

7. Even more crazy was the fact that they were sentenced to life in prison.

Yes, they should pay for their crimes... but life sentences?!


:crazy:

[kelly1mm]

12. So if someones commits armed robbery and get more $ they should

get more time? That seems to be the gist of your comment. I guess the poor really are worth protecting less than the rich then.

[eShirl]

6. I don't care why he did, just glad it was finally done.

[Hannah Bell]

8. the rest of the story: one sister's dialysis costs too much for mississippi.

"Their incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation, and Jamie Scott's medical condition creates a substantial cost to the state of Mississippi," Barbour said in a statement.

Epps estimated that Jamie Scott's dialysis treatments cost Mississippi about $200,000 a year.
"That's not counting other treatments," Epps said.

Barbour's order stands on the condition that Gladys donates one of her kidneys to her ailing sister, "a procedure which should be scheduled with urgency."

If the operation cannot proceed for medical reasons, Lumumba said the governor's attorney informed him that they would revisit that condition but she would not go back to prison.

On a political talk show hosted by civil rights activist and businessman Charles Evers on WMPR 90.1 late Wednesday night, Barbour described the suspension of sentences as the equivalent of parole. Any violation of the law could therefore land them back in prison, though Barbour said he has full confidence that the Scott sisters would lead law-abiding lives. Barbour said the original sentence was "unusually long."

Evers asked Barbour how Jamie would afford her dialysis after her release, and Barbour said she would become Medicare eligible because of her disability.

"Instead of Mississippi taxpayers bearing that, it will be spread over all the taxpayers in the United States," Barbour said.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20101230/NEWS/12300346/Scott+sisters+to+be+freed+


Their three male accomplices are free.

[LynneSin]

11. The REAL reason why these 2 women were pardoned

I'm assuming the state won't have to pay for the Kidney transplant now and I doubt either woman has the funds to make this operation happen.