The NAACP exploits the Scott Sisters for Monetary Funds

The NAACP has many in the grassroots criminal justice advocacy community upset with its recent solicitation for money using the Scott Sisters name. The Scott Sisters are Jamie and Gladys Scott who were sentenced to double life in a Mississippi prison after being convicted of participating in a robbery that netted less than twelve dollars and where no one was hurt. Many feel that their charges were politically motivated and the actual perpetrators of the crime have stated that the sisters had nothing to do with it and they now say they were coerced to testify against the sisters in October of 1994. The two sisters have languished in the horrid conditions of the Mississippi penal system ever since. Through the hard work of a few people, most notably Nancy Lockhart who has worked tirelessly on the case for years and was able to solicit the interest of bloggers, internet radio hosts and Youtubers who took the time to expose their readers, listeners and viewers to the sisters plight, petitions were started and circulated garnering worldwide attention to the case.

Now that the sister’s story has gained mainstream media attraction, here comes the NAACP and does little more than to have Benjamin Jealous start speaking publically about the two sisters who had virtually become household names among those who follow cases of injustice throughout the United States.

For the NAACP to be a Johnny come lately to the case after ignoring it for so long stinks of opportunism and at this time it is not known if the NAACP even asked the family or either of the sisters for permission to use their names to solicit funds. At the very least, considering the difficult transition the sister will face when finally released, the NAACP should set aside any donations gathered using the sister’s names and put it into some kind of fund payable to the sisters upon their release.