Governor Josh Shapiro of Abington Township approved on Friday, June 13 the commutation of 71-year-old Marie “Mechie” Scott’s life sentence, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

According to the story, Scott has spent more than 50 years in prison for murder after she and her then-teenage boyfriend robbed a Germantown gas station. She helped restrain the cashier and looted the store’s cash register and safe before her then-boyfriend shot the cashier in the head.

She was convicted of felony murder, though her attorneys argue that she was acting as a lookout.

On February 10, the Abolitionist Law Center, Amistad Law Project, and 25 other organizations sent a letter to Governor Shapiro asking for his assistance in the commutation application.

From the Abolitionist Law Center’s letter:

Ms. Scott is an exemplary candidate for commutation who has been incarcerated for over 50 years for a felony murder conviction in which she did not take a life that occurred when she was a teenager.

Scott has decades of demonstrated commitment to improving herself and those around her, including extensive ties to community members outside of prison, the support of SCI Muncy, where she is held, and an ongoing battle with breast cancer. Yet PA Dept. of Corrections Secretary Laurel Harry opted to withhold a recommendation for commutation in Ms. Scott’s application to the Board of Pardons.

The full letter is below:

Scott will be eligible for parole following Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons unanimous vote to recommend that her life sentence be reduced to time served. She will serve at least six more months “as a penalty for the three times she escaped from prison decades ago”, The Inquirer said.

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Image: Abolitionist Law Center