Miscarriage of Justice
One project down, yay! More or less on schedule to be caught up w/things by tomorrow evening, Friday evening at latest. So taking break, reading e-mail feeds, and see a link to this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/opinion/12herbert.html?_r=1
Obviously, it is years and years too late to really even begin to FIX this; there is no making it right, but at least the damage can still be mitigated a little and the injustice can cease to grow:
You have to believe that somebody really had it in for the Scott sisters, Jamie and Gladys. They have always insisted that they had nothing to do with a robbery that occurred near the small town of Forest, Miss., on Christmas Eve in 1993. It was not the kind of crime to cause a stir. No one was hurt and perhaps $11 was taken.
Jamie was 21 at the time and Gladys just 19... Each was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in state prison, and they have been imprisoned ever since. Jamie is now 38 and seriously ill. Both of her kidneys have failed. Gladys is 36.
Three teenagers pleaded guilty to robbing the men. They ranged in age from 14 to 18. And in their initial statements to investigators, they did not implicate the Scott sisters,. But a plea deal was arranged in which the teens were required to swear that the women were involved, and two of the teens were obliged, as part of the deal, to testify against the sisters in court.
Howard Patrick, who was 14 at the time of the robbery, said that the pressure from the authorities to implicate the sisters began almost immediately. He testified, “They said if I didn’t participate with them, they would send me to Parchman and make me out a female.” He was referring to Mississippi State Prison, which was once the notoriously violent Parchman prison farm. The lawyer questioning the boy said, “In other words, they would send you to Parchman and you would get raped, right?” “Yes, sir,” the boy said.
The teens were sentenced to eight years in prison each, and they were released after serving just two years.
h/t eastside kate at shakespeare's sister, where I first read about this: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/10/action-item-campaign-to-save-scott.html
The appeals process is long over, but, At this point, it's essential that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour grant Jamie and Gladys Scott clemency.
Gov. Barbour's office can be reached at 1-877-405-0733, or by mail at: P.O. Box 139, Jackson, Mississippi 39205. The email is: governor@governor.state.ms.us.
Too many horrors in the world, but if the man isn't a completely evil scumbag without the slightest vestige of a moral compass, he'll pardon them now that this has come to his attention. If he is such a completely evil scumbag, perhaps a sufficient # of e-mails and phone calls will still sway him, so, have at it.
Now back to work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/opinion/12herbert.html?_r=1
Obviously, it is years and years too late to really even begin to FIX this; there is no making it right, but at least the damage can still be mitigated a little and the injustice can cease to grow:
You have to believe that somebody really had it in for the Scott sisters, Jamie and Gladys. They have always insisted that they had nothing to do with a robbery that occurred near the small town of Forest, Miss., on Christmas Eve in 1993. It was not the kind of crime to cause a stir. No one was hurt and perhaps $11 was taken.
Jamie was 21 at the time and Gladys just 19... Each was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in state prison, and they have been imprisoned ever since. Jamie is now 38 and seriously ill. Both of her kidneys have failed. Gladys is 36.
Three teenagers pleaded guilty to robbing the men. They ranged in age from 14 to 18. And in their initial statements to investigators, they did not implicate the Scott sisters,. But a plea deal was arranged in which the teens were required to swear that the women were involved, and two of the teens were obliged, as part of the deal, to testify against the sisters in court.
Howard Patrick, who was 14 at the time of the robbery, said that the pressure from the authorities to implicate the sisters began almost immediately. He testified, “They said if I didn’t participate with them, they would send me to Parchman and make me out a female.” He was referring to Mississippi State Prison, which was once the notoriously violent Parchman prison farm. The lawyer questioning the boy said, “In other words, they would send you to Parchman and you would get raped, right?” “Yes, sir,” the boy said.
The teens were sentenced to eight years in prison each, and they were released after serving just two years.
h/t eastside kate at shakespeare's sister, where I first read about this: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/10/action-item-campaign-to-save-scott.html
The appeals process is long over, but, At this point, it's essential that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour grant Jamie and Gladys Scott clemency.
Gov. Barbour's office can be reached at 1-877-405-0733, or by mail at: P.O. Box 139, Jackson, Mississippi 39205. The email is: governor@governor.state.ms.us.
Too many horrors in the world, but if the man isn't a completely evil scumbag without the slightest vestige of a moral compass, he'll pardon them now that this has come to his attention. If he is such a completely evil scumbag, perhaps a sufficient # of e-mails and phone calls will still sway him, so, have at it.
Now back to work.