ATLANTA — Just under a week after a grandmother pleaded with state and national authorities to help bring 18-year-old Skylar Mack home, Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are adding their voices to the conversation.
Mack has been jailed in the Cayman Islands since mid-December after pleading guilty to violating the COVID requirements for visitors - particularly a mandatory two-week quarantine. Officials said she was initially sentenced to 40 hours of community service and asked to pay a $2,600 fine.
However, that changed when the case moved up to the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands where, on Dec. 15, her sentence was changed to four months imprisonment.
In the final days leading up to Dec. 22 appeal hearing, Mack's grandmother Jeannie Mack urged President Donald Trump, Gov. Brian Kemp, and the state's U.S. senators, Perdue and Loeffler to help.
"They’ve decided they’re going to make an example and they’re going to use an 18-year-old American girl whose never had to deal with an attorney. She’s never been in any trouble. None," said the grandmother.
The appeal ultimately led to her sentence being lowered to two months. But a letter dated Christmas Day, filed jointly by Georgia's senators, has asked for more to be done.
"We support the right of the Cayman Islands, as a British Overseas Territory, to enact appropriate regulations to protect the safety of its residents during this trying time and to impose fair sentences against those who violate such restrictions," the letter states, also pointing to her ongoing incarceration and the "substantial fine" she has already paid.
The senators, said, however, that the teen's parents are hoping this frantic time can be brought to a more expedited end.
"It is the sincere hope of her parents that she can safely and expeditiously return home to continue her studies as a pre-med student at Mercer University," the senators said.
They added that the family has pointed to concern over the teen's safety and recent threats against her life following the publicity the case has received.
“We appreciate the efforts of U.S. Embassy Kingston and the U.S. Consular Agency to provide consular services and protect the legal rights of Ms. Mack as a U.S. citizen," the note concludes. "We encourage you to continue these efforts and to convey to the Governor our support for her family’s call for leniency.”
The Cayman Islands, which relies heavily on tourism to keep its economy going, has a population of about 62,000. There have been a little more than 300 coronavirus cases and two deaths.