Seattle Times Scott Sisters Article

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2010

Seattle Times Scott Sisters Article

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sisters may or may not be guilty, but Mississippi assuredly is

Let's assume they did it.

Let's assume that two days before Christmas in 1993, a 22-year-old black woman named Jamie Scott and her pregnant 19-year-old sister Gladys set up an armed robbery. Let's assume these single mothers lured two men to a spot outside the tiny town of Forest, Miss., where three teenage boys, using a shotgun the sisters supplied, relieved the men of $11 and sent them on their way, unharmed.

Assume all of the above is true, and still you must be shocked at the crude brutality of the Scott sisters' fate. You see, the sisters, neither of whom had a criminal record before this, are still locked away in state prison, having served 16 years of their double-life sentences.

It bears repeating. Each sister is doing double life for a robbery in which $11 was taken and nobody was hurt. Somewhere, the late Nina Simone is moaning her signature song:

"Mississippi Goddam."

For the record, two of the young men who committed the robbery testified against the sisters as a condition of their plea bargain. All three reportedly received two-year sentences and were long ago released. No shotgun or forensic evidence was produced at trial. The sisters have always maintained their innocence.

Observers are at a loss to explain their grotesquely disproportionate sentence. Early this year, the Jackson Advocate, a weekly newspaper serving the black community in the state capital, interviewed the sisters' mother, Evelyn Rasco. She described the sentences as payback for her family's testimony against a corrupt sheriff. According to her, that sheriff's successor vowed revenge.

You don't have to believe that to believe this: Mississippi stands guilty of a grievous offense against simple decency.

But there is hope. Recently, the sisters' cause has been championed by high-powered allies. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert and the NAACP have called on Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to pardon the two women. I add my voice to theirs.

I have no way of knowing if the Scott sisters' fate is tied in to some sheriff's revenge and at some level, the question is moot. Whatever the proximate cause of this ridiculous sentence, the larger cause is neon clear: the Scott sisters are black women in the poorest state in the union. And as report after report has testified, if you are poor or black (and God help you if you are both), the American justice system has long had this terrible tendency to throw you away like garbage. Historically, this has been especially true in the South.

If you doubt it, play with the scenario in your head. Try to imagine some rich white girl doing double life for an $11 robbery. You can't.

But then, that girl has access to a brand of justice unavailable to women like Jamie and Gladys Scott. She will receive every break the law allows her and maybe a few it does not. No one will throw her away.

And while it would be nice to think this problem of discarding people's lives would be solved by the release of the Scott sisters, the truth is, that wouldn't even address it.

How many other Scott sisters and brothers are languishing behind bars for no good reason, doing undeserved hard time on nonexistent evidence, perjured testimony, prosecutorial misconduct or sheer racial or class bias?

So fixing the problem the Scott sisters represent involves nothing less than the reformation of the justice system, a commitment to make it, as the name implies, a system that reliably produces justice — as opposed to these too frequent miscarriages thereof.

Meantime, Jamie Scott, who is in her late 30s now, is in poor health. She is said to be losing her vision and both her kidneys have failed. And we wait for common sense to take hold in Mississippi.

It is a situation that shocks the senses, even if we assume they did it.

Now, assume they did not.

Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.'s column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: lpitts@miamiherald.com

From: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2013477385_pitts21.html

ACTION ALERT FOR JAMIE SCOTT

ACTION ALERT FOR JAMIE SCOTT

From: Nancy Lockhart October 2 at 1:47am

Please e-mail and/or call Drs. Gloria Perry and Zein-Ahmed and request that Jamie Scott #19197 immediately receive proper medical treatment. Jamie has been vomiting for 5 days now and is in need of immediate attention. I apologize for being so crude here but, this is the case and it is urgent. Please assist us in saving her life until she is released!

Dr. Gloria Perry - gperry@mdoc.state.ms.us

(601) 359-5155

Dr. Zein-Ahmed - MZein-Ahmed@mdoc.state.ms.us

(601) 359-5155

You may cc and call the following if time permits.

Margaret Bingham - mbingham@mdoc.state.ms.us

601-932-2880

Christopher Epps - CEPPS@mdoc.state.ms.us

Epps ph. 601-359-5600

Nancy Lockhart

free the scott sisters

Ben Jealous Requests Pardon for Scott Sisters

MESSAGE FROM MRS. RASCO:

Thanks to all of the supporters that have helped with Jamie and Gladys' case. It is because of all of you that it has came down to what it has. You all have worked hard to help to free Jamie and Gladys and I feel like now we are on the final step to freedom.

I am asking that everyone Write and Fax all the Parole Board members to ask for justice for Jamie and Gladys. They need all of your help, the ones that can tweet it, please do. Jamie and Gladys' life depends on you all so that another injustice won't be done to them. Let the Parole Board know that the world is looking at this injustice.

Shannon Warnock - Chairman

Bobbie Thomas - Board Member

Clarence Brown - Board Member

Betty Lou Jones - Board Member

Danny Guice - Board Member

State of Mississippi Parole Board
660 North Street
Suite 100A
Jackson, MS 39202
Fax: (601) 576-3528

Please contact these Board Members and keep doing it until Jamie and Gladys are free. Love to every one of you.

Evelyn Rasco

Parole Board investigator meets with Scott sisters

  
        Parole Board investigator meets with Scott sisters
The Mississippi Link: News

For the first time in their 16-year imprisonment, Gladys and Jamie Scott have gotten some action from the Mississippi Department of Correction Parole Board.
According to their attorney, Chokwe Lumumba, an investigator from the Parole Board visited the sisters in the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility early this week. However, he was not given the opportunity to be present.

“They did not tell me that they [the Parole Board] were going to see them,” Lumumba told The Mississippi Link Tuesday night, Sept. 21. “This is not really characteristic of Parole Board procedure. It is inappropriate not to allow council to be present.”
The sisters are incarcerated for their alleged involvement with two other teenagers in a 1993 armed robbery of two men of $11. They are serving double life sentences. They maintain their innocence. No one was killed.
For more information and updates about the sisters ordeal, log on to http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/
The fact that Lumumba was not privy to the investigator’s visit with the sisters has alarmed their mother Evelyn Rasco of Pensacola, Fla.
“I don’t know why they would not want Mr. Lumumba present. This has me very concerned,” Rasco said, who recently lost her father. Her daughters were allowed to attend their grandfather’s wake in Forrest, Miss., but not his funeral.

While his office will inquire why he was not alerted, Lumumba, at the same time, said he is hoping the Board is acting in good faith. He said he is optimistic that the Parole Board has been moved to do something, but he wants that something to be positive.
The “move” comes after a loud cry for justice for the Scott sisters went out last Wednesday, Sept. 15, when hundreds marched and rallied from Farish Street Park to the Governor’s Manson on to the state capitol in downtown Jackson. The crowd chanted: “We are here - without fear - and we want our sisters free;” “Haley Barbour, can’t you see? The Scott sisters must be free. Right now, Right now!” and “Fifteen years is too long; Send our sisters home!”

NAACP President Ben Jealous was also in town last week to accompany Lumumba in submitting a petition with more than 2,000 signatures in support of freeing the Scott sisters to the Governor’s office.
Mississippi Parole Board Chairman Shannon Warnock told The Mississippi Link that the Board has received the clemency request from Lumumba. “We’ve received a request from the Governor to proceed with the clemency investigation as we would any other pardon applicant,” she said. “I’ve asked our investigator to launch that process. Once we receive the report, we will interview the candidates. Then make our recommendation to the Governor, along with submitting the complete investigative report. I’m sorry, but I cannot commit to a time line. Typically, it takes several months. But I can say this, once we make our recommendation to the governor, it is his discretion at that point.”

Make the Call: Help Jamie Scott

Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice

Free the Scott Sisters

Call Charlie Rubisoff

Nancy Lockhart --- Call Charlie Rubisoff - Continue to call every day - demand an investigation into Jamie and Gladys' case - 601-359-3680

      Scott Sisters - Call Investigator Charles Rubisoff & Demand Justice!!!

SPONSORS NEEDED FOR MISSISSIPPI BUS TO D.C.

SPONSORS NEEDED FOR MISSISSIPPI BUS TO D.C.!

Sponsors are needed to help pay for the bus bringing Mrs. Rasco and supporters in Mississippi up to the Gray-Haired Witnesses Fast for Justice so that she, her children and grandchildren can speak on behalf of Jamie and Gladys Scott. Gloria's Kitchen is one of Mrs. Rasco's greatest supporters in Mississippi and have made bumper stickers, t-shirts, lots of phone calls, flyering and much more in the fight for freedom for the Scott Sisters and are now making arrangements for the bus, but the expense is great.

Please mail an M.O. for whatever you can spare (no amount is too small!) ASAP made out to Donnie Finley and mail to:
Donnie Finley c/o Gloria's Kitchen
2855 Bailey Ave.
Jackson, MS 39206.

If you need more info please phone Donnie at: 601-454-6507. Thank you in advance for your kind support!

SUPPORT THE GRAY-HAIRED WITNESSES FAST FOR JUSTICE!

5/28 GRAY-HAIRED WITNESSES FLYER + UPDATES
 
SUPPORT THE GRAY-HAIRED WITNESSES FAST FOR JUSTICE!
JUNE 21, 2010 -- WASHINGTON, DC
10 AM - DEPT. OF JUSTICE
12 NOON - WHITE HOUSE PRESS CONFERENCE
1PM-9PM - LAFAYETTE SQUARE PARK

We need our community to support us in this effort to bring national attention to the case of the Scott Sisters and all other women who have been incarcerated wrongly and egregiously over-sentenced, punishing and destroying our families and children.

Please print out and help distribute our flyer this long weekend, particularly in the DC, MD, VA area. (Thanks Bro. Thunder X!) The flyer is downloadable at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32114384/Gray-2

Bro. Dalani Aamon of Harambee Radio did a PSA in support, it's about 2 1/2 mins. please air it on your radio programs: http://www.divshare.com/download/11504574-e65 - please share this!

We need volunteers, particularly those in the tri-state DC, MD, VA area, to contact us!! We need assistance distributing information and in carrying out the event on that day, please get involved!

-------
IN SOLIDARITY:

Free The Scott Sisters!

It grieves me Bros, Sis and Comrades, in this day and age, that we even have to come together and mount a campaign to call for the Freedom of the Scott Sisters.

If ever there was a self-evident case, where there was NOTHING even to talk about, and that cried out for JUSTICE - this is it! We have two sisters, Jamie who's very seriously ill, and Gladys, both imprisoned in Mississippi, sentenced to double-life for a $11 robbery in which no one was injured and they've already done 15 years!!!.... not even considering they've staunchly proclaimed their innocence and are crying out for help!

It could be your sister, my sister, anybody's sister! So i gladly join the June 21st fast in solidarity with the Gray-Haired Witnesses White House demonstration demanding freedom for Scott Sisters. It's the very least i or anyone of us could do and i'm urging my family and friends to attend and fast also. If that doesn't get immediate result i hope you'll consider coming back with a campaign to boycott of the state of Mississippi, or some similar action, till they do free the Scott Sisters. Stay strong, and keep fighting, i will too. Free the Scott Sisters!
Sundiata Acoli, Political Prisoner
----------
Harambee Radio and TV Network is honored to stand in solidarity with the quest for justice for Jamie and Gladys Scott, two sisters who have been imprisoned for over 16 years. We deem it unconscionable that the Scott sisters received two life sentences for a crime that netted a mere eleven dollars; a crime for which they have always proclaimed their innocence.

The Harambee Radio and TV Network is pleased to be able to spotlight this egregious case, a case which continues to shock the conscience of those who hear it. Harambee features commentary and interviews from the most respected activists from across the nation and we seek to actively broaden awareness around the sisters’ case. As part of our solidarity, we are opening our airways with a special focus on this travesty of justice through both our online radio and television outlets. And, in concert with our mission statement, we will collaborate and partner with others to strengthen the movement that will allow justice to prevail.

Dalani Aamon, CEO and Founder
-----------
Thanks to the African-American Freedom and Reconstruction League for their beautiful letter of solidarity, please view it at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32111420/Letter-in-Support-of-Scott-Sisters

Udja Temple's letter got it started, and is at: http://grayhairedwitnesses.blogspot.com/2010/05/press-release-gray-haired-witnesses-621.html

Please send us your organization's statement of solidarity and present it at the event if at all possible!
------
Endorsement list is in formation, please send in your name and affiliation (if any) no later than June 15 to ghwitnesses@gmail.com. Updated endorsement lists will be posted in updated mailings, at the website and at the Facebook group.

Action Committee for Women in Prison
Agnes Johnson, The 1212 Community in the Bronx
Bonnie Kerness, AFSC*
Brenda Scott Lowery
Bro. Moorbey, Chairman, Black Unity Movement
Bro. Sauti & Sis. Shiriki, KCBLR.ORG Radio
Charles E. Campbell, Allen Hydro Energy Corporation (AHEC)
Cleo Silvers
David Blanchard
Dominique Reed, HRC-Fed Up!
Donna Wallach, Justice for Palestinians
Eddie Griffin (BASG)
Fayemi Shakur, Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign
Harambee Radio and Television Network
Int'l Concerned Family/Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Jacqui C. Williams
Leonna A. Brandao, S.W.III, New Vision Org., Inc.
Malaika H. Kambon, People's Eye Photography
Mary Ratcliff, Editor, San Francisco Bay View Newspaper
Mississippi Prison Watch
Monica Moorehead, Women's Fightback Network, NYC
Nathan Hare, Black Think Tank
People's Organization for Progress
Rev. Majadi Baruti, Udja Temple Ministries
Senghor Jawara Baye, President General UNIA-ACL
Sistah Q, Author of Maintaining Our Temples
Sundiata Acoli
Tara Graham
Terry Howcott
The African American Freedom & Reconstruction League
The MOVE Organization
4JusticeNow
(* For ID purposes only)

We need you to support by doing some or all of the following:
- STAND WITH US IN WASHINGTON AND BRING OTHERS!
- Post our statement to your Facebook and other social netwoking sites. Help us get the word out.
- Forward the press release to your email colleagues. (Press release is at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/31674423/grayhairpr)
- Issue a statement of support on an individual or organizational level on this endeavor. Or, ask us to list you as an endorser.
- Write a blog, article or commentary on the statement's mission and call, post it and pass it on for posting on our website.
- Write and publish an article on the state of the Scott Sisters and the issue of Black incarceration. (Case Summary on the Scott Sisters is at http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/search/label/Case%20Summary)
- Volunteer to help us prepare for the day, particularly if you live in the DC, Balt., VA area

Check us out on Tuesday June 1 at 11 pm on Garvey's Voice hosted by President General UNIA-ACL, Senghor Jawara Baye and on Thursday June 3 at 7 pm on The Legacy Justice Radio Show hosted by Nkechi Taifa, Esq, both on the Harambee Radio and Television Network.

"We stand on this history today. We stand before you as Gray-Haired Witnesses asking freedom-loving people of all colors who believe in the dream of Ida B. Wells, of a just, safe and open America for all peoples regardless of our different social locations to break the veil of silence and stand strong in a renewed spirit of moral consciousness for this country. The greatest asset we have is our body, mind and spirit and our willingness to step out of the daily flow of life and stand tall for what is right and just. The jagged tears in the social and cultural infrastructure of Black and poor communities and families are unconscionable and unacceptable to us. We come ready to repair them. In the tradition of race women throughout history and our survival, we declare our presence and we will not be silent and we are not afraid." From the Call.

Contact us at ghwitnesses@gmail.com, 1- 866-968-1188, Ext. 2, and please link to us at
http://www.grayhairedwitnesses.blogspot.com/

5/11 - JAMIE SCOTT ACTION ALERT!

 
 Today at 10:24pm
From: Nancy Lockhart
----
This is an update on the condition of Jamie Scott.
Jamie Scott did not receive dialysis today as the fistula in her armed has clogged up! It is my understanding that it may be unclogged at this present time.
After passing out today, Jamie was rushed to the hospital by ambulance, from prison.
At the hospital she was given an antibiotic shot.
Jamie has many boils over her body which are running pus and blood.
The doctors at the hospital cleaned the boils and Jamie was sent back to the prison.

Jamie does not sound well at all.


Please contact these officials and let them know that Jamie Scott, #19197, needs to be hospitalized ASAP as she has infections throughout her body that need immediate treatment! Please ask the individuals below to ensure that Jamie Scott remains in the hospital until the infection clears totally.

Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
HOTLINE: 202-353-1555
PHONE: 202-514-2000
202-307-6777 fax
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

Dr. Gloria Perry, Medical Department (601) 359-5155
gperry@mdoc.state.ms.us

Christopher Epps
601-359-5600
CEPPS@mdoc.state.ms.us
723 North President Street
Jackson, MS 39202

Governor Haley Barbour
P.O. Box 139
Jackson, Mississippi 39205
1-877-405-0733 or 601-359-3150
Fax: 601-359-3741

5-5-10 SCOTT SISTERS UPDATE

 Today at 12:32pm
Greetings all,

Mrs. Rasco received word that last evening a 13 yr. friend of Jamie Scott's took a few steps toward her and fell down dead. The guards ran to her aid and tried CPR and everything that they could, but the woman had passed away. Jamie became hysterical, vomited blood and began losing breath. The guards there calmed Jamie, prayed with her, and stayed with her until her heart rate returned to normal. This woman had issues with her medication and health care in the prison for years, and was just questioning her medication earlier that day. The consensus among the inmates was that this woman's death was just another example of the poor medical care in that hellhole.

The issue remains of Jamie vomiting blood, as well as reporting that there are large, infected knots spread in various parts of her body which are painful and full of pus and blood. Jamie is terrified that she will be the next one to die and reports that her body is again full of infection. She has also been told that she has become anemic and that her blood sugars are only checked on a once weekly basis!

Please support by participating in two action requests!
--
1. ACTION
Jamie needs to be hospitalized and cleared of these infections! There also needs to be a determination about the level of medical care she is receiving as it is apparent that she is not being monitored carefully as these infections continue to thrive and remain untreated until there is a demand from the outside.

Please contact these officials and let them know that Jamie Scott, #19197, needs to be hospitalized ASAP as she has infections throughout her body that need immediate treatment!

Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
HOTLINE: 202-353-1555
PHONE: 202-514-2000
202-307-6777 fax
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

Dr. Gloria Perry, Medical Department (601) 359-5155
gperry@mdoc.state.ms.us

Christopher Epps
601-359-5600
CEPPS@mdoc.state.ms.us
723 North President Street
Jackson, MS 39202

Governor Haley Barbour
P.O. Box 139
Jackson, Mississippi 39205
1-877-405-0733 or 601-359-3150
Fax: 601-359-3741
(If you reach VM leave msgs, faxes, and please send letters)
==================
2. ACTION
Please e-mail, the following persons at The American Bar Association in support of the Scott Sisters. Please blind Copy (bcc) and paste in all e-mail addresses. A 1-800 number is also included below. Our goal here is to have thousands contact the ABA as there is power in numbers.
PilchenI@staff.abanet.org
KEnglehart@staff.abanet.org
CurdB@staff.abanet.org
windsorp@staff.abanet.org

American Bar Association
Attention: President Carolyn Lamm
321 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60654-7598
800.285.2221

Dear President Lamm:

I would like to bring your attention to the Case of The Scott Sisters. In the state of Mississippi, Jamie and Gladys Scott were convicted of armed robbery. A jury found the sisters guilty in 1994, transcripts conflictingly state that $11 dollars was netted. The sisters received double life sentences each for this crime, had no prior criminal records, and no one was injured in any way. A 14 year old testified that he was coerced and threatened to be sent to Parchman Penitentiary if he did not lie on the sisters by signing a statement. Other witnesses stated that the sisters were not involved in this crime. Jamie and Gladys Scott were convicted with no physical evidence.

The sisters are in need of a pro bono criminal law attorney. Currently, an attorney is handling Jamie Scott’s medical issues as she has had kidney failure and is receiving sub standard medical care via the MDOC and Wexford Health Sources, Inc.. Jamie Scott is in stage 5 of kidney failure, which is the final stage.

I am requesting that you assist in securing a criminal attorney to review their prior appeals process and determine additional ways to re enter state or federal court. Above all, the sisters should be immediately exonerated.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Sincerely,

(Your name)

Case Summary: http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/search/label/Case%20Summary
Legal Transcripts: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21748820/Scott-transcript
============
Jamie and Gladys want to thank all of the supporters so much for everything that's being done on their behalf, they are so happy to receive mail and to know that we are out here fighting for them and want to make sure that you know how grateful they are!

Gladys Scott, #19142
CMCF/B-Bldg.
P.O. Box 88550
Pearl, MS 39288-8550

Jamie Scott, #19197
CMCF/2A-B-Zone
P.O. Box 88550
Pearl, MS 39288-8550

4/25 SCOTT SISTERS UPDATE!

Today at 8:42pm
Greetings all,

Mrs. Rasco recently learned that Jamie's condition is unchanged and that when last they spoke she was being worked up for a possible urinary tract infection. She was mentally strong, however, and very grateful that her mother and supporters are sticking by she and Gladys through all that they have suffered.

MDOC Commissioner Christopher Epps, whom we've been contacting for months regarding the disastrous level of Jamie's care and who's been steadily misinforming people that she's not as sick as we've regularly documented, even after she had to be hospitalized several times for high toxicity and infections that almost took her life, is being HONORED as the KEYNOTE SPEAKER by the Jackson County, MS NAACP at their upcoming banquet on April 30, 2010!

Link: http://www.gulflive.com/sendthispage/sendthispage.ssf?http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-living/2010/04/christopher_epps_to_speak_at_freedom_fund_banquet.html


How could this branch, which is actually portrayed as an activist branch that has courageously taken on the police dept. and most recently the fire dept., completely ignore the sickeningly outrageous case of the Scott Sisters! And to add insult to injury, laud Christopher Epps, who covers up the low-budget, some-timey care that denies Jamie Scott regular medications, regular dialysis, and the specific diet she has been told repeatedly that she needs to maintain any semblance of health. The medical care is said by inmates there to be abysmal on every level, and particularly so for Jamie Scott, with end stage kidney failure!

This is a smack in the face to Mrs. Rasco, to whom Epps made false promises of relief for Jamie, as well as Jamie and Gladys Scott, their supporters, and the community at large! This organization should be fighting on the front lines for justice for the Scott Sisters and not inviting Christopher Epps to some banquet! And what of the national NAACP, why are they NOT responding to the many requests that have been made of them for the past 15 years to become involved in this case!

This is the final indignity and must not go unchallenged. This bureaucrat should not pompously sit up there picking his teeth and pontificating while Jamie Scott lay suffering in one of the very prison cells that he oversees, a prison cell that she (nor her sister) should even be in!

Please contact the president of the Jackson County, Mississippi NAACP, Curly Clark, and ask him:

* Why is the NAACP distinguishing a man who would allow a woman to deteriorate in a prison on his watch until she is now at end stage of kidney failure?

* What does the NAACP want to hear from a man that won't permit this same, very seriously ill woman to be housed in the Medical Bldg. on the grounds of that facility so that she can be cared for by her sister and instead has her housed in a mold-infested, damp, breeding ground for the infections which have repeatedly threatened her life?

Ask Jackson County NAACP President, Curly Clark, and State President, Derrick Johnson, why they are not involved in the fight for justice for the Mississippi Scott Sisters, a shocking and internationally known atrocity occurring right in their own backyard!

This entire event should be protested if Epps remains on the program and attendees given refunds for their $30 tickets!

Curly Clark, President, Jackson County NAACP
228-762-9692

Derrick Johnson, State President
Mississippi State Conference NAACP
1072 West J.R. Lynch Street
Jackson, MS 39203
Phone: 601.353.6906
Fax: 601.353.1565
Website: www.naacpms.org

Scott Sisters Press Release

Scott Sisters Press Release