The Scott sisters' attorney, Chokwe Lumumba, is sponsoring a rally Friday outside the Governor's Mansion and state Capitol to seek support for a full pardon for the women. Lumumba said a full pardon would help them find jobs. Both sisters plan to attend the rally.
The women served nearly 16 years of life sentences for an armed robbery they say they didn't commit. Jamie Scott suffers from kidney failure, and Gladys Scott offered to donate a kidney to her.
They're living with relatives in Pensacola, Fla., and their surgery has not yet been scheduled, Lumumba said Thursday. For now, their doctors won't even test them for compatibility until both lose weight and Gladys Scott quits her heavy smoking.
The Scott sisters' case became a cause celebre on the Internet before their release, with Lumumba and other supporters saying the two black women were victims of an unfair justice system.
Civil rights advocates had called for the sisters' freedom for years, saying their sentences were too harsh for the crime. They were convicted in 1994 of participating in the robbery of two men on Christmas Eve in 1993. Prosecutors said the women led two men into an ambush. Court records say the robbery netted between $11 and $200.
Barbour was not governor when they were convicted.
As he prepares for a possible White House run, Barbour has faced criticism for remarks that critics said downplayed Mississippi's history of racial strife. In an article in the Weekly Standard magazine in December, Barbour recalled his own upbringing in Yazoo City and said he didn't recall the state's civil rights era as "being that bad."
Lumumba said this past Friday he thought Barbour's possible presidential aspirations might boost the Scotts' chance for a pardon.
"I guess if I was running for president of the United States, I would not someone to think that I pardoned five people for murder and then we have two young ladies who've been in jail for 16 years and they were allegedly involved in a scheme to get $11 and I didn't pardon them," Lumumba said.
Barbour has previously pardoned inmates who had worked as trusties at the Governor's Mansion, including some convicted of murder. The Scott sisters never worked at the mansion.
In late December, Barbour said the Mississippi Parole Board had reviewed the Scott sisters' case and recommended he neither pardon them nor commute their sentence.
Barbour spokeswoman Laura Hipp said the governor "has not granted pardons to anyone who does not admit their guilt and express remorse."
During a speech in Jackson last week, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan mentioned the Scott sisters and asked if the U.S. is a just society for black people.
"How come Gov. Haley Barbour won't be merciful enough to say look at the time these sisters spent in prison?" Farrakhan said. "I know you did let them out governor, and we appreciate it. But you could go a step further and pardon them."
