Sisters reunite with family after 16 years behind bars

Kay Jones and Ric Blackburn
CNN

Pensacola, Florida (CNN) - Evelyn Rasco started crying early Saturday morning as soon as she saw the cars carrying her daughters turn the corner.

Minutes later, her voice took on a tougher tone: "I'll tell you one thing, y'all ain't going back to the state of Mississippi. I'll tell you that. Y'all ain't going there to get a drink of water."

Her daughters, Gladys and Jamie Scott, were released from a Mississippi prison Friday after 16 years behind bars. Gov. Haley Barbour suspended their armed robbery sentences on one condition - that one sister donate a kidney to the other.

Jamie Scott, 38, is gravely ill and needs a kidney transplant, said attorney Chokwe Lumumba.

Barbour said last week it "should be scheduled with urgency." And Jamie Scott told CNN she feared at one point that she would die in prison.

The sisters were convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to life in prison for their role in a 1993 ambush in Scott County, Mississippi. Authorities accused the sisters of leading two men to a group of three teenagers, who hit them with a shotgun and took their wallets. The robbers netted between $11 and $200, according to CNN affiliate WLBT.

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