During the past two weeks, in response to successful grassroots campaigns, two governors have released black Americans who had been railroaded by our nation's criminal justice system.
Together, these cases speak to the urgent need for the work the NAACP and our allies are doing to encourage more Governors to use their clemency authority as our nation's founding fathers intended by freeing more deserving people more frequently.
The most recent victory is that of Jamie and Gladys Scott, two Mississippi sisters who have been imprisoned for 16 years on double-life sentences. They were each condemned to this extraordinary sentence as teenagers for a first-time offense in which $11 was stolen and no one was hurt. The Scott sisters were convicted of luring two men to be robbed by three teenage boys. The boys each received eight years and served less than three. Moreover, there are compelling reasons to believe the sisters are innocent.
Their case has become increasingly tragic and urgent over the years. While in prison, Jamie has lost use of both her kidneys.
At Thursday's press conference for the Scott Sisters, I praised Governor Barbour for his decision to release both sisters from prison:
This is a shining example of the way clemency power should be used. Governor David Paterson did it last week in the John White case. Now, Governor Barbour. We hope next will be the governor of Georgia, the John McNeil case. These are important cases, and it's important governors realize that they have a role to play in advancing justice.
As the Scott sisters' lawyer Chokwe Lumumba has observed, we are further heartened that by indefinitely suspending their sentences Governor Barbour is taking the same first step he took in each of the cases he later pardoned.
Many have objected to Governor Barbour attaching a condition to Gladys Scott's release that she follow through on her promise, long blocked by the Mississippi penal system, to donate her kidney to her sister.
We share these concerns. We would fight anyone who ever tried to activate such a clause and we would win.
Attorney Lumumba has noted what many legal scholars have also observed:
We are much better off with Gladys out of prison on a condition that is constitutionally unenforceable than behind bars in a prison that repeatedly refused to let her help her sister. Not only has the Governor's office assured us that they will never enforce this clause, they couldn't do it if they wanted to.
Why he let them out is an argument for historians, getting people like them out is what we have to be about.
In the meantime, our eyes remain firmly focused on the prize: assisting the Scott sisters in getting the freedom they have won, the health care they need, and ultimately the full pardon they deserve.
The victory of their release encourages us to press on in our nationwide efforts to convince more governors to use their clemency powers to free more people who desperately deserve it.
Like the struggle to win justice for the Scott sisters, the struggle for full and fair usage of clemency powers is as urgent as it has been long. For more than a century, the NAACP has pushed Governors and Presidents publicly and privately to use their clemency powers to advance justice. Yet, the roots of this struggle go much deeper.
Alexander Hamilton predicted in Federalist Paper number 74 that without "easy access" to clemency our nation's justice system and democracy would not work properly. "The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel."
In addition to dealing with a justice system that has indeed become "too sanguinary and cruel" we are also confronting one that is grossly overcrowded with Americans of all colors (especially black men and women), and leaders who are too fearful to do much about either aspect of the problem.
Ten years ago, I played a small role in helping free Kemba Smith -- a young black woman sentenced to more than twenty years on drug conspiracy charges despite her prosecutor's own admission that Ms. Smith had never used, sold, nor benefited from the sale of drugs. When I met with President Clinton about the case, it was clear he had studied her case and understood why she deserved freedom. He commuted her sentence a few months later as he left office.
As Kemba Smith has often said, her case is remarkable not because there are so few "Kemba Smiths" in our justice system (there are thousands), but rather because there are so few commutations for people who deserve them.
Gladys and Jamie Scott's freedom is just as rare and precious. Let's keep this movement growing by ensuring the pleas of others who deserve clemency are heard, and they are set free.
Follow Benjamin Todd Jealous on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Ben Jealous
William Fisher: Barbour Burning?
What we have done (and shall continue to do) was not for recognition or fame, but neither Ben Jealous nor NAACP have any business claiming victory for themselves, when in fact, there were those who have been supporting Jamie and Gladys Scott long before they were aware of the case. It is because of the "little people" the NAACP was made aware of the case to begin with.
Maurice Clemmons, the man who just over a year ago killed 4 police officers near Seattle. Now, Huckabee was blamed for this by his opponents, since he gave Clemmons clemency that allowed him to be released. That can be argued as unfair. Clemmons was given a 108 year sentence including 60 years as a teenager(17) for breaking into a home and stealing about $6,700 worth of stuff. It wasn't a violent crme, nobody was hurt. 10 years after is incarceration he asked for clemency. Huckabee commuted his sentence down to 47 years, making him eligible for parole which he was granted. Then about 10 year later he kills 4 police officers.
Huckabees opponents will use this against him, but a 108 years for a 17 year old in a non-violent crime is the kind of thing we would applaud like the Scott sisters if we had the same internet poliferation in 1999. Without knowing what Clemmons would do 10 year later, it is hard to make a valid case to keep his 108 year sentence. This could make governors gun shy when giving clemency. Imagine the uproar if Haley Barbour were running for president in 2020 and one of the Scott sisters kills someone? His opponents, those applauding his decision today, would be calling for his head.
Where I have issues with this whole thing is that the Scott sisters case has been a cause NAACP has championed for years. In Jan of 2010, the younger Scott sister wanted to donate one of her Kidneys to her sister but why was Barbour not interested then?
Oh, could it be that once Barbour had stuck his feet in his mouth so many times about the South, slavery and segregation, he found an ex-change he could exploit?
Worse yet, in every state of the Union, bartering, exchanging, bargaining and a quid pro qua for organs are unethical and illegal.
Benevolent deeds are best served when no one is watching and when there is nothing to be gained.
I feel another Kumbyah Moment coming on !
On Christmas Eve in 1993, the sisters convinced two men to drive them to a nightclub in Forest, Mississippi. During the journey, Jamie faked nausea...
She asked the driver to pull over, knowing there was a car with three teens following them. That's when the teens pulled up and robbed the two men at gunpoint of a grand total of $11. Jamie and Gladys jumped in the car with the boys and took off.
Apparently, there's more than one side to this story.
But even in the worst case scenario, 16 years for a first offense seems excessive.
The last time I checked, framed political prisoners Mumia Abu Jamal and H. Rap Brown were still on death row.
But I guess that's not so "urgent."
Imagine filing an employment discrimination lawsuit without an attorney. Imagine having your employer NYSDOCS represented by NYS Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and his staff of over 450 attorneys. Imagine your Title VII case thrown out of court because of perjured declarations filed by Eliot Spitzer. Imagine appealing the clearly unjust dismissal of your lawsuit without an attorney to all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Imagine the Supreme Court denying you justice by refusing to even review your case. (The Court’s refusal to reverse my case makes it a perfect example to use to correct unjust Title VII dismissal via summary judgment motions.)
One can only imagine that other law firms and attorneys are also engaging in questionable methods including summary judgment motions, to deny other victims of discrimination and retaliation their day in court.
During the Shirley Sherrod saga she stated that the fact that over 24, 000 employment discrimination complaints and/or cases were filed and/or pending against the USAD.
From NAACP to NAAAP!!!
The only thing about this that I see as unfair is the light sentances given to the men.
USA has about 5% of the world's population, but something like 25% of the world's prisoners.