Jamie and Gladys Scott left the Central Mississippi
Correctional Facility this morning, driving through a
crush of news media and yelling “We’re free” after
spending 16 years behind bars.
The sisters, sentenced to life terms for their
involvement in a 1993 armed robbery that netted
between $11 and $200 are are expected to leave
Jackson later today for Pensacola, Fla., where their
mother, Evelyn Rasco, and their children live.
As their SUV pulled off of the prison grounds, the
Scott sisters waved and yelled “God bless y’all” to
media and supporters lined up across the street.
They held a Friday afternoon press conference with
national NAACP leader Ben Jealous in Jackson before
leaving for Florida.
Rasco was busy Thursday preparing her house for
her their arrival. She told The Clarion-Ledger the
national media were parked outside and her phone
was “ringing off the hook.”
“I just want to make sure everything’s together for
when my children get home,” Rasco said. “That’s
what I’m concerned with today.”
Last week, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour agreed to
indefinitely suspend the sisters’ sentences.
Florida leaders told Mississippi officials Wednesday
afternoon that the two had been accepted to go to
Pensacola, and area judges, the district attorney and
sheriff were notified.
In agreeing to release the sisters, Barbour noted the
high cost — nearly $200,000 a year —of providing
dialysis treatment to Jamie Scott.
In what many have considered an unusual move, the
governor conditioned Gladys Scott’s release on her
donating a kidney to her sister.
In a statement, Barbour appeared to downplay the
kidney stipulation.
“(Gladys) asked for the opportunity to give her sister
a kidney and we’re making that opportunity
available to her,” he said.
It remains unclear whether Gladys Scott will be an
organ match for her sister or whether she has any
health complications that could prevent the
procedure.
The governor’s office has not said what will happen
if Gladys Scott is unable to go through with the
donation.
“All of the ‘What if’ questions at this point are purely
hypothetical,” Barbour said. “We’ll deal with those
situations if they happen.”
Rasco said the family does not know how it will pay
for Jamie Scott’s dialysis treatments or the eventual
transplant.
“We’re trying to set up all of the medical stuff,” she
said. “I just don’t know.”
She said supporters are considering establishing a
fund to help cover medical expenses.
The sisters, who will remain on probation for the
rest of their lives, are required to report to the
Florida Department of Corrections probation office
at 315 S. A St. before Jan. 18, agency spokeswoman
Jo Ellyn Rackleff told the Pensacola News Journal on
Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment