CONDITION FOR THE SCOTT SISTERS RELEASE

A few weeks ago on BLAKstar Talk we were discussing current events and I shed much needed light on the Scott Sisters.

Jamie, 38, and Gladys, 36, are serving life sentences in Mississippi for their role in a 1993 robbery that netted $11, despite having no prior criminal record. The three men also arrested in connection with the robbery pleaded guilty and have served their terms. Two of them testified against the sisters in return for lesser sentences.


The Scott sisters were accused of orchestrating the armed robbery of two men on a rural road near Forest, Miss., on Christmas Eve 1993. According to court documents, the sisters enticed the two men to take them on a ride to a nearby nightclub. Witnesses testified that during the ride Jamie Scott complained of nausea. When the car pulled over three men in a following car robbed them at gunpoint. After the robbery, the victims testified the sisters left with the three men. Both the victims and the accused are black.(via USAToday)

RELEASE OF THE SISTERS NOW IN PROGRESS
Two Mississippi sisters who have spent 16 years in prison over an $11 armed robbery will be released with an unusual stipulation -- one must donate a kidney to the other.

 Gov. Haley Barbour, who suspended their sentences, said Wednesday that Gladys Scott, 36, must donate a kidney to her sister, Jamie, 38.


Although they would be eligible for parole in 2014, the Department of Corrections "believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society" and their incarceration is no longer necessary for rehabilitation, Barbour said in a statement.


And Jamie Scott's kidney dialysis treatment creates a substantial cost to the state, said Barbour.
 Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Christopher B. Epps, who agreed with the decision to suspend the sentences, said Jamie Scott's three-times-a-week dialysis costs the state about $190,000 a year.
 The announcement pleased the NAACP and other civil rights advocates who have pressed for the sisters' release in rallies and at other forums. (via CNN)