THE COMMITTEE TO FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS

CONTACT:

Mrs. Evelyn Rasco
P.O. Box 7100
Pensacola, Florida 32534
E-mail: rqueenbee2222@yahoo.com
Website
Petition
Transcripts

MISSISSIPPI INJUSTICE: A DOUBLE-LIFE SENTENCE FOR $11.00!

Scott County, MS ---- In a trial fraught with legal malpractice and witness coercion, Mississippi Judge Marcus Gordon oversaw one of the most blatantly corrupt trials in history, culminating in the staggering over-sentencing of sisters Gladys and Jamie Scott to double-life each in an armed robbery where no one was murdered or harmed and the amount alleged to have been taken was a whopping $11.00.

On December 24, 1993, the Scott County Sheriff’s Department arrested the Scott sisters for armed robbery even though three young males, ranging from ages 14 to 18, confessed to committing the crime. Despite this, the corrupt Mississippi sheriff used coercion, threats, and harassment to compel them to turn state’s evidence against the Scott sisters due to a long-standing vendetta against a family member. The 14-year-old male would later testify that he did not read the statement and was pressured to sign a written statement prepared by the sheriff without an attorney being present.

As if that weren't bad enough, these young women received incompetent legal representation at the lower court trial. Their attorneys, Firnist J. Alexander, Jr. and Gail Shaw-Pierson failed to interview and subpoena witnesses, only calling one witness when there were several. Incredibly, the jury never even heard any testimony from the alleged victims. The sisters were advised to not testify on their own behalf by their attorneys, Alexander and Shaw-Pierson, denying them the opportunity to speak for themselves.

In October of 1994, Jamie and Gladys Scott were sentenced to extraordinary double life terms each in prison, even though neither sister had prior convictions and there was no violence involved in these charges.

The four State’s witnesses provided conflicting testimony and one alleged accuser was not called to testify – he was not questioned or subpoenaed by defense attorneys Firnist J. Alexander, Jr. or Gail Shaw-Pierson. Witnesses admitted however, that reports prepared by the Sheriff, of their descriptions of the event contained no such claim. In other words, the sisters were not present. Jamie and Gladys Scott were not involved in the armed robbery and they did not conspire to plan such. Witnesses all testified that they were coerced and threatened by Deputy Sheriff Marvin Williams. Testimony also revealed that Marvin Williams prepared statements of the events from the night of December 24, 1994 BEFORE obtaining signatures and BEFORE the witnesses were brought into his office. In other words, the statements were not written by witnesses. Three affidavits exist – they all state that the Scott Sisters were not involved in this robbery. One affidavit is written by a trustee of the local jail, his account of the facts reveal that a wallet was located a few days after this alleged robbery and that wallet contained the photo ID of one of the alleged victims of the trumped up robbery and three twenty dollar bills. The trustee also reveals that there was NOT a robbery, he was also threatened to be sent to Parchman Penitentiary if he told the truth.

According to the Request for Commutation of Sentence and/or Pardon prepared by attorney Chokwe Lumumba, the Scott Sisters challenged their convictions on direct appeal; arguing that there was insufficient evidence to convict them, and the guilty verdict was against the overwhelming weight of evidence, which should have exonerated them. The court of appeals found no error and affirmed the convictions on December 17, 1996. As a result, they filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court, which was denied on May 15, 1997. They consequently filed an Application for Leave to File Motion to Vacate Conviction pursuant to the Mississippi Post Conviction Collateral Relief Act. The Supreme Court also denied that application.

This family is shell-shocked, yet determined to fight on. They have tried to have faith that at some point this unbelievable travesty would be corrected and their upside-down lives righted. Yet 14 long years later nothing has changed, the women's five children are still being raised by their now ailing mother, and their father has died of a massive heart attack because of this. The emotional strain this burden has placed upon their family is immeasurable.

Jamie Scott writes, "What began as an implication and outright miscarriage of justice, has catapulted to destroy an entire family. Gladys was a 19 year old pregnant mother, and myself, Jamie, a 22 year old mother during the time of our arrest, conviction and sentencing for a crime we did not commit." She continued, "We are convinced that once this chain of events is exposed and unraveled, the events that occurred, the lives that have been destroyed, the pain and suffering the citizens of Scott County have endured; everyone will be utterly amazed, astonished and compelled to assist us in our plight for freedom. We pray that the people would insist upon an investigation into their misconduct and miscarriage of justice."

Gladys and Jamie’s older brother has recently returned from Iraq and has served in the US Army for 22 years, while his sisters remain victims of wrongful convictions in the very country that he proudly represents. The defendants and their family are wholly depending on support from the press, organizations, and all those dedicated to justice in making this debacle as public as possible.

Please sign petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Free-Jamie-Gladys/index.html
Posted by Evelyn Rasco at 5:07 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: press release
Newer Posts Older Posts Home
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
CLICK BELOW FOR:

SCOTT SISTERS CASE TRANSCRIPTS

SCOTT SISTERS CASE OPINION

SCOTT SISTERS INDICTMENT

PLEASE CONTACT:

MRS. EVELYN RASCO
P.O. BOX 7100
PENSACOLA, FLORIDA 32534

Email Mrs. Rasco

Thursday, January 7, 2010
1/7 SCOTT SISTERS UPDATE!

THANK YOU FOR REPOSTING THIS INFORMATION!!

Warm Greetings all,

Happy New Year to you all and may this be the year that the Scott Sisters are AT LONG LAST reunited with their family! Thanks to all of you who have written, called and e-mailed on their behalf, as well as spread the word of this case by forwarding and reposting, we need that to happen! We've received messages from as far away as Germany and as near as the smallest of towns here in the U.S. of people in support of these women, this is about as grassroots of an effort as it gets, we are counting on each person reading these words to ACT.

It's been reported that there was a recent article on the case featured in the Jackson Advocate (Mississippi) for which we are real grateful and will send out as soon as we receive it. Mainstream publicity largely continues to elude us, as you know they would rather focus on Tiger Woods or Mariah Carey instead of the wrongfully convicted who are suffering and dying behind the walls of the prisons in this country! It's gonna take hundreds of letters to these entities to get them to say a mumbling word about this atrocious case, so we're really calling on everyone to contact as many media outlets as possible with the information at our website.

With the help of Attorney Jaribu Hill the prison has agreed to allow the Scott Sisters to visit each other for two hours this month! This will mean the world to them as they have been terribly upset about not seeing one another. Both women suffer from depression, Jamie is in poor health, and they need to be in regular contact with one another and their family who love and miss them so much. There's a new photo at the website of the children and grandchildren of Jamie and Gladys so that you can see how much they are needed at home instead of being tormented in captivity like this, it is truly cruel and inhuman punishment!! This situation is really abysmal, it's just gotta get solved!

Please continue to send in your ideas and spread the word about this case, we need you!! Let us know when you contact media so that we can keep up with who has received the info. Also please bear in mind that we are still looking for a criminal attorney to work on this case, please share this information with any leads at all that will assist this family!

Don't forget to send in your letters and to ask others to do so as well! We can make anything happen, we have the power, we just need the MASS NUMBERS of people TO ACT!

------------

SAMPLE LETTER:

Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

The Honorable Attorney General Holder:

I am writing to request that you investigate the cases of Jamie and Gladys Scott. The Scott Sisters were given double life sentences each in October of 1994 for armed robbery in the state of Mississippi. No one was injured or murdered. One witness states that about 11 dollars was netted in the armed robbery. All witnesses and victims of this crime have testified that the Scott Sisters were not involved in the robbery. Witnesses testified that they were coerced and threatened to lie on the Scott Sisters.

A 14 year old witness testified that he signed a statement which was prepared for him before he entered Deputy Sheriff Marvin Williams’ Office. This statement was signed by the 14 year old without an attorney present. He was told that he would be released from the local jail the next morning if he signed it. He was not released.

This is an egregious wrongful conviction and the Scott Sisters and their family has suffered now 15+ years.

Jamie and Gladys Scott are housed in Pearl, Mississippi at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. Their ID numbers are Jamie Scott #19197 and Gladys Scott #19142.

Sincerely,
(Your Name)
----

Please also send a letter to Governor Haley Barbour:

Governor Haley Barbour
P.O. Box 139
Jackson, Mississippi 39205
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oprah's last year is coming up and she should be pressured to do a show on this case from her home state, there's a contact form for her that you can fill in online at https://www.oprah.com/plugform.jsp?plugId=220. Imagine if she received 1,000 forms to do something on the Scott Sisters, perhaps she would be moved to do so, who knows? Also, please make sure to print some flyers out and stick them in your bag the next time you are going out among the people to spread the word, we can do this, we MUST! http://www.scribd.com/doc/22154749/Scott-Sisters-Flyer
Posted by Evelyn Rasco at 4:57 PM
Labels: GENERAL UPDATES

* March 16, 2006, 11:29 AM ET
Mississippi Judge Marcus Gordon: As Handwriting-Challenged As His Court’s Litigants?
LINK

The Smoking Gun Web site, which helped turn best-selling author James Frey into a best-selling fabulist, shines the spotlight on a Mississippi state court judge. The accusation isn’t nearly as harsh as those leveled against Frey, but it’s definitely funnier. On Feb. 3, the presiding judge of the Mississippi Eighth Circuit court — encompassing Leake, Neshoba, Newton, and Scott counties — issued an order warning attorneys that the court clerk would now reject pleadings and motions containing illegible signatures.

But The Smoking Gun has the order (click here), and defies its readers “to make out the signature of the judge who issued the handwriting order.” The Smoking Gun says it thinks the judge is named either “Micg Gl,” “Smccg Ge,” or “Judge Gl (or Ge).” The site also has a photo of the silver-haired, penmanship-impaired jurist.

Since the Law Blog delights in The Smoking Gun’s investigative skills, we took them up on their challenge of trying to uncover the name of the judge. Some Web searching led us to the Neshoba County Courthouse, where a clerk identified the judge who signed the order: Judge Marcus Gordon. Gordon, who was out of town and unavailable for comment, made headlines last year when he sentenced Klansman Edgar Ray Killen to 60 years in prison for his manslaughter conviction in the “Mississippi Burning” murders.