[Ppnews] Lynne Stewart's Sentence Explained

[Political Prisoner News]

Court Confirms Ten-Year Sentence for Lynne Stewart

BY JEFF MACKLER

http://lynnestewart.org/

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today confirmed the 
2010 decision of Federal District Court Judge John Koeltl to change 
his 28-month jail sentence for radical attorney and human rights 
activist, Lynne Stewart, to ten years. The court's June 28, 2012 
decision was not unexpected.

Following federal prosecutors' appeal of what was widely considered a 
"lenient sentence," the Second Circuit all but ordered a compliant 
Koeltl to re-sentence Stewart and harshly. Koeltl did just that 
forcing Stewart to appeal to the very court that originally pressured 
Koeltl, in what was widely considered a "career decision" to do 
Stewart great harm.

Stewart was convicted at an outrageous 2005 New York frame-up trial 
on five counts of conspiracy to aid and abet and provide material 
support to terrorism. Her crime? Representing the "blind Sheik," the 
Egyptian cleric, Omar Abdel Rachman, who has also been convicted on 
trumphed-up conspiracy charges, Stewart issued a press release from 
her client stating his views on how Egyptian Muslim oppositionists 
should react to the ongoing crimes and murders of Egypt's then 
President Hosni Mubarak.

Stewart was convicted of violating a vaguely-worded court-ordered SAM 
(Special Administrative Measure) that barred her from revealing her 
client's opinions. The penalty for such violations had traditionally 
been a mild slap on the wrist, perhaps a warning to not repeat the 
"violation" and to bar attorney-client visits for a few months. 
Stewart, barring an unlikely Supreme Court reversal, will now serve 
her ten-year sentence with perhaps a one-year or ten percent 
reduction for "good behavior." She is presently incarcerated at FMC 
Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.

Koeltl's original 28-month sentence statement, in the face of federal 
prosecutors demanding 30 years, noted that Stewart, known for 
representing the poor and oppressed for three decades with little 
financial remuneration, was a "credit to the legal profession." 
Stewart served as lead  counsel for her client along with former U.S. 
Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who testified on her behalf during the 
trial. Clark himself has issued similar press releases with no 
punishment. Indeed, an indignant prosecutor during Stewart's trail 
suggested that Clark himself be charged with conspiracy, but his 
superiors decided that imprisoning the nation's former top attorney 
was not yet in their game plan and the suggestion was ignored.

The Second Circuit decision was based on the allegations that Stewart 
demonstrated insufficient deference to the original sentence. The 
court claimed that her statement to the media immediately following 
her sentence that, "I can do 28 months standing on my head" 
demonstrated contempt for the legal system. I was standing next to 
Stewart at that moment and was saw nothing other than a great 
expression of relief that she would not be sentenced, in effect to 
death, based on the 30 years that federal prosecutors sought. Stewart 
entered the sentencing hearing on that day, totally ignorant of 
whether her sentence would be the deeply punishing 30 years demanded 
by the federal prosecutors or perhaps something that she, 70 years 
old at the time, could "live with" and look forward to a normal life. 
She carried  nothing but a plastic bag, some medicines and a toothbrush.

The Second Circuit also too umbrage at Stewart's courageous statement 
when she took the stand to make her closing remarks. Her attorney at 
that moment, Michael Tiger, asked, referring to Stewart's issuing the 
press release on her client's behalf, "Lynne, if you had to do it all 
over again would you do the same thing?" With a tear in her eye, 
Stewart stated, "I would hope that I would have the courage to do it 
again, I would do it again." Stewart also insisted that her sworn 
duty to represent her client had to weighed against the formalities 
of laws or court orders that prevented such diligent representation.

This refusal to bow to authority, to show the "required deference" to 
legal bullies with power, outraged her persecutors, who sought 
vengeance in the rigged criminal "justice" system.

Stewart's now rejected appeal argued three essential points:


I.  In relying on Lynne Stewart's public statements to enhance the 
original sentence of 28 months, her First Amendment rights were abridged

II. The fourfold increase in the sentence was substantively 
unreasonable and failed to balance her lifetime of contribution to 
the community and country with the criminal act of which she was convicted.
III The Judge's findings of Perjury and Misuse of her position as an 
Attorney on which he also based the increase, were error.

"Free Lynne Stewart" must remain the rallying cry of all those who 
cherish civil liberties and democratic rights. Stewart, like so many 
others, but perhaps among the first tier, was a victim of the 
government-promoted malicious and murderous "war on terror" aimed at 
stifling all dissent  and imprisoning the innocent to justify its 
wars against working people at home and against the oppressed and 
exploited across the globe.

Write Stewart at:

Lynne Stewart 53504-054
FMC Carswell
P.O. Box27137
Ft. Worth, Texas

Contributions can be made payable to the:
Lynne Stewart Organization
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216

Jeff Mackler is the West Coast Coordinator of the Lynne Stewart 
Defense Committee
=======

Thanks, Carole Seligman for this Autobiographical statement from 
Lynne Stewart (12/11)

My name is Lynne Stewart and I am currently jailed by the US 
government at, Federal Medical Center, a medical prison in Texas.  I 
am serving a ten year sentence.  Before this I was a top criminal 
defense lawyer in New York City for many decades.
Like so many others, I came to "the city" from  somewhere else --not 
Kansas or Iowa, but only a subway ride away -- Eastern Queens, white 
Queens of the nineteen fifties.  In l961 I lived with my infant 
daughter, Brenna, on Broome Street near Pitt with a view of the 
Williamsburg Bridge.  The Lower East Side was the beginning of a post 
graduate education which was advanced in depth and 
racist  enlightenment the following Fall when I began as an 
elementary school librarian in the heart of Black Harlem. My 
experiences there and as part of the activist militant movement of 
the 1960s -- particularly community control of schools; anti Viet Nam 
war, my meeting and partnership with Ralph Poynter, my husband; my 
subsequent move to PS 64 on 9 Street and Avenue C and the challenge 
of fighting the problems of my own neighbors and community -- all 
contributed to changing a very savvy innocent into a woman warrior 
for people's and particularly children's rights.
By the early '70s the thrilling spirit of the 60's, and particularly 
our struggle around the schools, was dying -- co-opted and blatantly 
coldly bought off.  "Comrades" we thought were at the barricades 
shoulder to shoulder with us, were more interested in a job or an 
apartment or a political appointment than in saving the children, 
even their own.  (The beginning of the "I got mine" mentality that 
has morphed into the privileged 1%.)  I was in a quandary: Should I 
squander my talents shoring up an educational system that was racist 
and doomed children to future failures or should I move on?
I will never forget the day I went, after school, to his storefront 
motorcycle shop to talk to Ralph.  I told him that I felt if I 
remained in the school system I would end up an eccentric, a shopping 
bag lady, driven mad by the daily wanton cruelty and racism.  He 
said, "Well, what do you want to do?" (At that moment, I had two 
children and he had four and I was expecting our youngest. He had a 
struggling small business.)  I said "You know I always wanted to be a 
lawyer, go to law school."  He said, with no hesitation, "Then I 
guess you better do it." And I did.  Our baby girl was born in April 
1971. I started Rutgers Law School with a scholarship (a full ride, 
as the young people say today) in September, and was fortunate to 
find Arthur Kinoy, a renowned Constitutional law scholar and a 
warrior of the Civil Rights legal struggle in Mississippi, as a 
teacher.  Thirty years later when the government came after me, 
Arthur accorded me my highest accolade when at a public rally he said 
I was the Peoples' Lawyer.  And I was.
I don't want to present my career to you -- that's for another day. I 
can say that for thirty years I practiced law as I lived my life 
according to principles of love and service, that which we talk about 
every Sunday at St. Marks, the "do unto others" and the "love your 
brothers and sisters as yourself," and according to the principles of 
Justice that have become part of my life from my years of Political 
Struggle. I had a forum to fight in -- the courtroom -- and I loved 
every minute of it.
Many of you know that the U.S. came after me for being too good a 
lawyer for my clients, and when representing Dr. Omar Abdel Rahman, 
an Egyptian Muslim cleric, accused of terrorism on the word of a 
double agent, I made a press release to Reuters News on his 
behalf.  He had been a leader in the anti-Mubarak, free Egypt 
movement for twenty years and the news release was to express his 
views of the current situation in Egypt, publicly.  For this I was 
convicted of aiding terrorism.  It is a joy to me that the Arab 
Spring that ousted Mubarak and the continuation of the Egyptian quest 
for true democracy has put the lie, and the shame to the U.S. government.
When I spoke earlier of the philosophy I espoused during my 
career,  I think it was best expressed in a speech I gave  to the 
National Lawyers Guild Convention.  I stated the following;
We have formidable enemies not unlike those in the tales of ancient 
days. There is a consummate evil that unleashes its dogs of war on 
the helpless; an enemy motivated only by insatiable greed, with no 
thought of consequences. In this enemy there is no love of the land 
or the creatures that live there, no compassion for the people. This 
enemy will destroy the air we breathe and the water we drink as long 
as the dollars keep filling up their money boxes.
...we have been charged once again, with, and for, our quests, ... to 
shake the very foundations of the continents.
We go out to stop police brutality - To rescue the imprisoned - To 
change the rules for those who have never ever been able to get to the
starting line much less run the race, because of color, physical 
condition, gender, mental impairment.
We go forth to preserve the air and land and water and sky and all 
the beasts that crawl and fly.
We go forth to safeguard the right to speak and write, to join; to 
learn, to rest safe at home, to be secure, fed, healthy, sheltered, 
loved and loving, to be at peace with ones identity.
... Our quests are formidable. We have in Washington a poisonous 
government that spreads its venom to the body politic in all corners 
of the globe. We have war - big war in Iraq, big war in Afghanistan, 
smaller wars in Columbia, Central Africa, Southeast Asia. We have 
detainees and political prisoners at home and now ... we have those 
Democratic and Republican conventions and then an election, with the 
corporate media ready to hype the results and drown out the righteous 
protests."
We still have quests and they are not those that can only be 
accomplished by lawyers. They are for everyone.  I am still fighting 
from inside the prison -- speaking out for the underdogs and those 
who are always kicked to the curb.
I want to be in the real world (although this is real enough) to be 
able to organize everyone to the terrible torture and tragedy of 
prisons and particularly, the brave men and women, of the struggles 
of the '60s who are held in the harshest conditions and have been for 
30 or more years --to name a few, Sundiata Acoli, Leonard Peltier, 
Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jaan Laaman, Mutulu Shakur, Herman Wallace and 
Albert Woodfox.  Many more political prisoners are listed on the 
Jericho website.
I too confronted the Judges who thought that my original sentence was 
too light for my "crime" on February 29 in the Federal Court  at 
Foley Square.  It was good that many people came to demonstrate 
collectively our contempt for this kind of prosecution and our 
recognition that their punishment of true defenders will not deter 
the brave warriors who seek Justice!






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