JAMIE SCOTT
The recipient.
JACKSON, Miss. — They shared life behind bars for a penny-ante armed robbery — and they’ll get sprung for sharing a kidney.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour yesterday suspended the life sentences of 36-year-old Gladys Scott and her 38-year-old sister Jamie — as long as the younger sister donates a kidney to the older sib.
“She wanted to do it,” said Barbour spokesman Dan Turner. “That wasn’t something we introduced.”
The sisters’ lawyer, Chokwe Lumumba, said Gladys was “elated about the news — I’m sure Jamie is, too.”
The decision brings to an end a racially charged case; civil-rights advocates for years have insisted the women’s sentences were excessive.
The Scott sisters were convicted and got two life sentences for leading two men into an ambush in central Mississippi in 1993 — robbing them of $11 and bashing their heads with a shotgun, court records showed.
They’re eligible for parole in 2014, but Barbour said prison officials no longer think the sisters are a threat to society.
He also pointed out that Jamie’s medical condition — she requires daily dialysis — costs the state a lot of money.