Sisters to be freed on pledge of kidney donation

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Two Mississippi sisters, whose life sentences for armed robbery were suspended last week on the condition that one donate a kidney to the other, will be released from prison Friday.

Jamie and Gladys Scott will be released Friday from the state prison in Rankin County, just east of Jackson and from there they’ll head to Florida, Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said.

“We’ll coordinate transportation with the sisters’ family,” Epps told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I have been told that the family is going to pick them up. If not, we will get them to Florida.”

Epps said the sisters would be formally told of their release Thursday. He says Jamie Scott would undergo a dialysis treatment Thursday.

“I have been told by our medical staff that she would have no problem traveling by car to Pensacola,” Epps said.

The sisters’ mother and their children live in Pensacola, Fla.

Epps said the sisters will be allowed to take whatever personal property they have with them and any money they have in their inmate accounts. He said the state also will supply them with 30 days of medication.

Epps said once the sisters are in Florida, local probation officials will take over their case.

Jamie and Gladys Scott were given life sentences for their involvement in a 1993 armed robbery in Scott County that netted anywhere from $11 to $200, based on court records.

The sisters are black, and their case has been a cause celebre in the state’s African-American community.

After 16 years in prison, Jamie Scott, 36, is on daily dialysis, which officials say costs the state about $200,000 a year.

Gov. Haley Barbour agreed to release her because of her medical condition, but 38-year-old Gladys Scott’s release order says one of the conditions she must meet is to donate the kidney within one year.

The idea to donate the kidney was Gladys Scott’s and she volunteered to do it in her petition for early release.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.