Sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott Released from Prison on Kidney Transplant Condition

The Scott sisters' life sentence for robbery has been overturned, with the condition that Gladys Scott must give a kidney to her sister Jamie.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on December 30 2010

In 1994, two African-American sisters, Jamie and Gladys Scott, were accused of masterminding a roadside robbery. The amount of money stolen was reportedly just $11—but incredibly, the sisters were given life in prison.

“The incident itself was not racial in any way, but the way it was handled had a racial prism to it,” their lawyer, Chokwe Lumumba, told ABC News. “Two white girls would have no way gotten two life sentences.”

There’s always been wide skepticism about whether the sisters were even guilty in the first place, and the ACLU has called their imprisonment a “grave miscarriage of justice.”

For 16 years, the sisters have suffered in prison while their five children have grown up without mothers. Jamie, 38, suffers from kidney disease, requiring dialysis every day. For many years, it seemed that the sisters had little to be hopeful about—but last week, nearly 200 people rallied in the Scott sisters’ support, and their voices were heard. The governor of Mississippi has finally agreed to free the sisters, on the condition that Gladys will donate a kidney to her sister.

Although the sisters and their many supporters are rejoicing at the news, their release isn’t due to civil rights violations so much as medical necessity: The governor’s press secretary claims the expense of Jamie’s dialysis treatment as a factor leading to the sisters’ release.

Still, whatever the case may be, the Scott sisters will be released within several weeks for their transplant surgery, and then permitted to recuperate at home. We bet they’ll have a whole lot to catch up on.

Filed under: History, Weird,

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