Pearl: Two sisters whose life
sentences were suspended on the condition that one donate a
kidney to the other were released from a Mississippi prison
on Friday after serving 16 years for an armed robbery.
Jamie and Gladys Scott waved to reporters and yelled
"we`re free" and "God bless y`all" as they left the Central
Mississippi Correctional Facility in a vehicle.
The sisters are moving to Florida, where their mother
and grown children live.
Jamie Scott, 36, is on dialysis, which officials say
costs the state about USD 200,000 a year.
Mississippi Gov Haley Barbour agreed to release her
from prison because of her medical condition, but 38-year-old
Gladys Scott`s release order says one of the conditions she
must meet is to donate the kidney within one year.
The idea to donate the kidney was Gladys Scott`s, and
she volunteered to do it in her petition for early release.
The sisters` attorney, Chokwe Lumumba, said the first
thing they want to do is eat a good meal.
"And you know how women are. They want to get some
clothes," he said.
Lumumba spoke in an open field used for law
enforcement training just across a highway from the prison on
a cold winter morning. A news helicopter circled over the
massive prison, which sits on a rural stretch of highway in
Pearl in central Mississippi.
Their freedom will allow not only for a reunion with
family, but also with each other.
The two women have been held recently in different
parts of the prison in Pearl, and it`s unlikely they had
much interaction in the sprawling complex of 13 housing units
on 171 acres (69 hectares).
The Scotts were convicted in 1994 of an armed robbery
in central Mississippi the year before. The robbery didn`t get
much; amounts cited have ranged from USD 11 to USD 200.
PTI
