An alleged robbery in 1993 netted $11 in cash and two double-life sentences for Jamie and Gladys Scott of Forest, Mississippi.  An article in USA Today provides a concise summary of the crime as it was presented to the jury by prosecutor Ken Turner: 

“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.” 

Seventeen years later, it is difficult to know if this an accurate depiction of events.  The Scott sisters were represented by an inept attorney who was disbarred two years later.  Neither sister testified and no witnesses were called on their behalf, so the state’s theory of the case went unchallenged. 

Jackson city councilman, Chokwe Lumumba, recently led a rally in support of the Scott sisters.  A highly regarded civil rights attorney (he once defended Curtis Flowers), Lumumba isn’t pressing the innocence issue.  Even if Jamie and Gladys were guilty as charged, he argues, the sentences handed down in this case were patently excessive.  

The Scott sisters have been attracting important new allies in recent days.  NAACP President Ben Jealous calls the legal process surrounding this case a “travesty”.  Ken Turner, the man who prosecuted the Scott sisters, isn’t admitting to any missteps, but even he admits the sentences are difficult to justify. 

So now its up to Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to issue a pardon that would return the Scott sisters to the free world and the decent medical attention they both need and deserve.  Barbour has issued pardons in the past, some of them controversial.  Consider these examples: 

•Bobby Hays Clark, who in 1996 shot his ex-girlfriend in the neck and beat her boyfriend with a broom handle. Clark, who had a previous aggravated assault conviction, was sentenced to 38 years. Barbour pardoned him last year without notifying the family of Clark’s victim. 

•Michael David Graham, who in 1989 shot his ex-wife point-blank with a shotgun while she waited at a traffic light. Barbour suspended Graham’s life sentence, and he was released. 

•Clarence Jones, who stabbed his ex-girlfriend 22 times in 1992. She had previously filed multiple assault and trespassing charges against him. He was sentenced to life in prison. Barbour pardoned him last year. 

•Paul Joseph Warnock, who in 1989 shot his girlfriend in the back of the head as she slept. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1993. Barbour pardoned him last year. 

•William James Kimble, convicted and sentenced to life for robbing and murdering an elderly man in 1991. 

With this track record, pardoning the Scott sisters looks like a no-brainer.  But these fortunate individuals were inmate trustees at the Governor’s mansion who were able to relate their sad stories to Mr. Barbour first-hand.  The Scott sisters are not so fortunate. 

Time was, governors and presidents made frequent use of the power of the pardon, but that was before a tough-0n-crime consensus settled over the American landscape.  Now mercy is bad politics–unless, it seems, the recipients of your largesse are white wife-killers.  

Barbour had a chance to pardon Clyde Kennard, a civil rights worker who was framed for killing chickens in 1960.  He refused. 

Thus far, attempts to interest the governor in the Scott sisters have been fruitless, but as support for Jamie and Gladys intensifies that could change.