Gov. Josh Shapiro commutes sentence for Marie Scott, who led push to end life without parole
June 17, 2025
Pennsylvania Capital-Star: “After spending almost all of her adult life in prison for her role in a robbery-murder, 71-year-old Marie “Mechie” Scott has hope for freedom.
Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an order Friday commuting Scott’s life without parole sentence for the 1973 murder of a gas station attendant as she and her boyfriend robbed the business. In six months, Scott will be able to go before the Pennsylvania Parole Board to make her case for release.
Scott had an outpouring of support at the May 9 public hearing where the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons recommended clemency, said Rupalee Rashatwar, staff attorney at the Abolitionist Law Center, which has represented Scott.
“I think that’s one of the most exceptional things about Mechie’s case — the whole movement that’s behind her,” Rashatwar said.
In a recording on the Abolitionist Law Center’s Instagram page, Scott described how her cries of joy upon learning of Shapiro’s decision spread among others at SCI Muncy, where she is incarcerated. Scott said she couldn’t find words to describe how she felt.
“There was not even an expression that I could have picked, that would have brought out and made you understand and feel what I felt,” she said in the recording.”