Woman could die in prison for $11 robbery

originally published by: The Grio
3rd March 2010

Evelyn Rasco has been living a nightmare for more than 15 years. “It’s torture,” she sobs over the phone from her Pensacola, Florida home. “It tortures me on a daily basis.”

The nightmare began on Christmas Eve in 1993 when Rasco’s two daughters, Jamie and Gladys Scott, left a mini-mart near their home in Scott County, Mississippi. Their car broke down, and they hitched a ride from two young men, one of whom they knew. But later that evening, the men were robbed at gunpoint by three teenagers in another car. The robbers got away with an estimated $11 and no one was hurt, but police accused the Scott sisters of setting the victims up.

Although the young women denied having any involvement and had no criminal record, a jury found them guilty of armed robbery. On October 13, 1994, a judge ordered them to each serve double-life sentences in the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, where they remain today.

“It is about race,” says Chokwe Lumumba, a political activist and attorney who's now representing the Scotts. “I think it would be unimaginable that two white women would be in this situation.”

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Posted by Tippa Naphtali on 17/03/2010. Filed under Questionable Convictions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry