Court Confirms Ten-Year Sentence for Lynne Stewart
BY JEFF MACKLER
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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