An Urgent Movement for Justice
By Benjamin Todd Jealous
(TEWire) - 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.
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