Scott siblings still awaiting clemency from Governor Barbour
Jamie and Gladys Scott still wait while their situation is heard through the states parole board along with a recommendation is built to Governor Barbour. Its now been per month given that they filed a petition to become pardoned, and for the reason that month their situation has received national attention. Its unfortunate that it is taken 16 years for anybody to see that they are set aside for 2 consecutive existence sentences for allegedly being involved with a robbery of eleven dollars.
Tuesday, Bob Herbert, an Op-Erectile dysfunction writer for that New You are able to Occasions, gave his around the Scott siblings situation. Herberts opinion is like many more: sheer dismay and measured outrage at losing any semblance of the existence for 2 ladies who been in the wrong place in the wrong time. After reading through their story and learning from the health problems theyve coded in prison, how will you ‘t be dismayed and annoyed that a few teens designed a mistake, an eleven dollar mistake to become exact, simply to see their adolescence become their adult years from the prison cell as well as their fate to fall at the disposal of just one guy?
Herbert highlights one proven fact that a number of other columnists who share the Scott siblings story don’t: the truth that merely a jury can levy a existence sentence for robbery within the condition of Mississippi. This statute was most likely passed with good intentions and also the assumption that many robberies are committed for that low, inexpensive of eleven dollars.
And, yes among the youthful teens who did the particular slowly destroying, neither Jamie nor Gladys, did brandish a gun at the time from the robbery, therefore it technically could be interpreted as armed robbery. But he and also the other teenage boys involved got served by a lighter sentence than Jamie and Gladys, plus they (the boys) had prior criminal history records. Although it appears Herbert takes it a little far when he claims that Mississippi is somewhat still around the edge of emerging in the Dark Ages, the handling of the situation was and remains misguided at best and asinine at worst.
The is supposed to safeguard all people. The law should safeguard all people, so when such things as the robbery that cost the Scott siblings the final 16 many years of their lives occur, punitive measures ought to be passed out. However, the punitive measures should satisfy the crime, and also the occasions should advice the interpretation from the law, not the law the occasions.
Once the law can be used to interpret past occasions, the final results are unlimited. The details should be presented. The accused have the authority to defend themselves in the courtroom (Jamie and Gladys didn’t testify). Only then can the occasions supply the frame by which to enact proper punishment. As we make use of the law incorrectly and that we fail to find the entire story, we finish up putting two youthful women imprisonment for 2-existence sentences for any crime by which they’re saying they performed no part. Its unfortunate. We only hope Governor Barbour uses the entire story to interpret the law and do what suits the Scott siblings
