Why Are the Scott Sisters of Mississippi Serving Life Sentences for Petty Theft?

Update December 30, 2010: Gladys and Jamie Scott are finally free after over 16 years in prison. Making a complete mockery out of our criminal justice system, their life sentences for a robbery of $11 as young adults tinged with Old South racism. After dozens of advocacy groups took on their cause, Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has just suspended their life sentences. We won!

Every once in a while a criminal case brings to mind the plot of Les Miserables. In that story, a man is forced into a 20-year ordeal with the law simply for stealing bread. Well, the case of Mississippi sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott proves that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. In 1993, the two black women reportedly took part in an $11 robbery.

For that crime, in which no one was harmed, you’d think that the sisters would’ve avoided hard time. Instead, the Scott sisters, who had no priors, were ordered to serve two consecutive life sentences. That’s right, back-to-back life sentences for petty theft.  Now the N.A.A.C.P. is trying to win a pardon for the sisters from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

The Scotts, who were 19 and 21 when the robbery occurred, have been incarcerated for 16 years. Meanwhile, three male acquaintances also convicted in the robbery are free after serving just a couple of years in prison. The men reportedly received lighter sentences in exchange for providing the prosecution with incriminating information against the Scotts.

“The authorities did not even argue that the Scott sisters had committed the robbery,” writes Bob Herbert of the New York Times. “They were accused of luring two men into a trap, in which the men had their wallets taken by acquaintances of the sisters, one of whom had a shotgun.”

Today, Jamie Scott is 38, in prison and gravely ill after suffering kidney failure. Her illness, as well as the fact that the punishment in this case far outweighs the crime, makes it imperative that she and her sister, Gladys, be released from prison immediately. Because the women can no longer appeal their convictions, it is up to Gov. Barbour to either pardon the women or grant them a commutation of sentence.

Why pardon the women? If you think it’s of no consequence that the women are serving two consecutive life sentences for petty theft, consider that their supporters argue that they are innocent of the crime. Herbert points out, for one, that the three men also convicted only implicated the women in the robbery after being pressured by authorities. To boot, Ken Turner — the man who first prosecuted the case — says that, although he believes the Scotts are guilty, it would be appropriate to relieve the women from serving any more time.

However you feel about the Scotts’ innocence or guilt, consider the tens of thousands of dollars required to keep just one person in prison. Funneling these resources into locking up two women for petty theft does a disservice to the residents of Mississippi. It also speaks to how little regard society has for black life. Is black life considered so worthless that lawmakers don’t care if the Scotts rot in prison over $11? Let’s hope that Gov. Barbour proves otherwise.

Photo Credit: Mindsay Mohan