In January 2025, ALC allies Amistad Law Project and Let’s Get Free along with activists from across Pennsylvania began taking action every week to support the commutation of our client Marie “Mechie” Scott‘s life without parole sentence so she can be released.

Mechie has been incarcerated for more than half a century for participating in a crime as a teenager, at age 19, that led to someone’s death — a death she did not cause or intend. Due to Pennsylvania’s draconian felony murder rule, she was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole. Yet her codefendant who committed the murder was able to receive parole years ago because he was considered a juvenile at the time of the crime.

During her incarceration, Mechie “has become a mentor and mother figure to dozens of women inside, teaching them how to control their emotions, plan for the future, and work to redeem themselves”, as the Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported. Officials at the PA prison (SCI Muncy) where Mechie is held support her commutation application.

Aside from the injustice of her sentence, Ms. Scott is now 71 years old and fighting cancer. There is no purpose whatsoever to keeping her in prison a day longer, much less for the rest of her life.

You can help free her!