A people’s victory
Scott Sisters will be free
Published Jan 5, 2011 4:24 PM
By Jaribu Hill
Greenville, Miss.
Also see: The Scott Sisters’ release and Mississippi racism
Dec. 30 — Gov. Haley Barbour calls the impending release of the Scott
Sisters an “early” release. A release from 16 years of wrongful
incarceration is most certainly not an “early” release.
Elected officials like Barbour cannot be allowed to now claim that Jamie and
Gladys Scott, who did not commit a violent crime or any crime for that matter,
suddenly are no longer a threat to the safety and security of the public.
Eleven dollars! The system that allowed the Scott Sisters to languish in prison
for an alleged “eleven-dollar” armed robbery must be
challenged.
The wrongful conviction and incarceration of hundreds more must be challenged.
They are victims of human rights violations, which the U.S. refuses to
acknowledge. They are victims of the same types of human rights abuses which
the U.S. is quick to identify in other countries. In fact, until it became
politically expedient, no one, from the White House to the Mississippi State
House, even bothered to “look into the matter.”
Jaribu Hill at Black Workers For Justice banquet, April 3, 2009, Raleigh, N.C.
WW photo: Monica Moorehead
|
We cannot allow the Scott Sisters’ liberation to be co-opted. The voices
of thousands of outraged people were raised in protest. We kept the pressure
on!!!
The Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights and the Southern Human
Rights Organizers’ Network salute the courage and perseverance of Evelyn
Rasco, mother of Jamie and Gladys Scott, and all those who stood firm in these
difficult times.
From Mississippi to Georgia, justice for all wrongfully incarcerated people!
Human rights for all!
Hill is executive director of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for
Human Rights and Southern Human Rights Organizers’ Network, 213 Main St.,
Greenville, Miss., 38701. E-mail [email protected].
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email:
[email protected]
Subscribe
[email protected]
Support independent news
DONATE