Free lynne stewart resist the destruction of democratic rights in america

[Peter Lemkin]

Injustice at its American 'best'...a very sad case and a sad and unfair judgment. Those who try to defend those the USA doesn't want defended are now subject to the same lack of defense, lack of legal rights, due process or judicial unfairness. It was a warning to all lawyers to not even think to defend those the US charges as terrorists - or you'll automatically be labeled one yourself. It has sent its chilling winds to all but the bravest of attorneys.

[Magda Hassan]

SIGN THE PETITION TO FREE LYNNE STEWART: SAVE HER LIFE Call for COMPASSIONATE RELEASE Now!

Click HERE to send a message to President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Samuels, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, Congressional Leaders, U.N. Secy Gen Ban, and members of the media saying you want Compassionate Release for Lynne Stewart NOW!

Appeal from Lynne Stewart's spouse Ralph Poynter and family:

Lynne Stewart has devoted her life to the oppressed a constant advocate for the countless many deprived in the United States of their freedom and their rights.
Unjustly charged and convicted for the "crime" of providing her client with a fearless defense, the prosecution of Lynne Stewart is an assault upon the basic freedoms of us all.
After many years of post-conviction freedom, her bail was revoked arbitrarily and her imprisonment ordered, precluding surgery she had scheduled in a major New York hospital.
The sinister meaning of the relentless persecution of Lynne Stewart is unmistakably clear. Given her age and precarious health, the ten- year sentence she is now serving is a virtual death sentence.
Since her imprisonment in the Federal Prison in Carswell, Texas her urgent need for surgery was delayed 18 months so long, that the operating physician pronounced the condition as "the worst he had seen."
Now, breast cancer, which had been in remission prior to her imprisonment, has appeared in her lymph nodes, on her shoulder, in her bones and her lungs and has reached Stage Four.
Her daughter, a doctor, has sounded the alarm: "Under the best of circumstances, Lynne would be in a battle of the most serious consequences with dangerous odds. With cancer and cancer treatment, the complications can be as debilitating and as dangerous as the cancer itself."
In her current setting, where trips to physicians involve attempting to walk with 10 pounds of shackles on her wrists and ankles, with connecting chains, Lynne Stewart has lacked ready access to physicians and specialists under conditions compatible with medical success.
It can take weeks to see a medical provider in prison conditions. It can take weeks to report physical changes and learn the results of treatment; and when held in the hospital, Lynne has been shackled wrist and ankle to the bed.
This medieval "shackling" has vanishingly little to do with any appropriate prison control. She is obviously not an escape risk.
We demand abolition of this practice for all prisoners, let alone those facing surgery and the urgent necessity of care and recovery.
It amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, violative of human rights.
There is immediate remedy available for Lynne Stewart. Under the 1984 Sentencing Act, after a prisoner request, the Bureau of Prisons can file a motion with the Court to reduce sentences "for extraordinary and compelling reasons." Life threatening illness is foremost among these and Lynne Stewart meets every rational and humane criterion for compassionate release.
To misconstrue the gravamen of this compassionate release by conditioning such upon being at death's door released, if at all, solely to die is a cruel mockery converting a prison sentence, wholly undeserved, into a death sentence.
The New York Times, in an editorial (2/12), has excoriated the Bureau of Prisons for their restrictive crippling of this program. In a 20-year period, the Bureau released a scant 492 persons an average of 24 a year out of a population that exceeds 220,000.
We cry out against the bureaucratic murder of Lynne Stewart.
We demand Lynne Stewart's immediate release to receive urgent medical care in a supportive environment indispensable to the prospect of her survival and call upon the Bureau of Prisons to act immediately.
If Lynne's original sentence of 28 months had not been unreasonably, punitively increased to 10 years, she would be home nowwhere her medical care would be by her choice and where those who love her best would care for her. Her isolation from this loving care would end.
Prevent this cruelty to Lynne Stewart whose lifelong commitment to justice is now a struggle for her life. Free Lynne Stewart Now! Call for Lynne Stewart's "Compassionate Release" NOW!
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]Please also write to Lynne with expressions of concern and wishes for strength and health, at:
Lynne Stewart #53504-054
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
PO Box 27137
Ft. Worth, TX 76127[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
For more information and latest updates, go to LynneStewart.org

Sign the petition here for the Compassionate Release of Lynne Stewart (scroll down to see petition text)
Petition here
http://iacenter.org/LynneStewartPetition/[url=http://iacenter.org/LynneStewartPetition/][/url]

[Peter Lemkin]

This is a very sad 'story' of Gross Injustice. Stewart was a defender of the rights of those denied it throughout her life. She was set-up and used as an example to scare other lawyers from even thinking of defending those accused of 'terrorism'. Forget the 'innocent until proven guilty' or 'right to defense attorney to protect one's rights and facilitate a just legal process. Lynn herself has cancer, which has now metastasized and she is not expected to live much longer - but no compassionate reduction of her sentence will be allowed - not even confinement to her own home or a hospital. The brutal regime in control now shows no mercy - less so for those who are bleeding hearts who'd help the underdog. Pleas sign the petition, without a massive response, Lynn will soon die a horrible death in a maximum security facility - despite never having done any wrong but defend her client to the best of her ability, and as is under the Constitution everyone's right. Wrong.

[Dawn Meredith]

This is outrageous and should strike fear in the heart of every criminal defense attorney in this country.

Of course I wonder how many are even aware. Not like this receives coverage in the MSM or the monthly Bar Journal.

Dawn

[Magda Hassan]

National Lawyers Guild


Message from Lynne Stewart, 7/25/13

To All:

By Now we will have filed papers which take us back into Federal Court in New York City to request that Judge Koeltl overturn the barbaric decision by the Bureau of Prisons and allow me to leave this empty loveless Prison and go home to People and Places familiar and beloved. I certainly am sick enough--even my oncologist revised her prognosis down to 18 months now. However, my spirit remains undaunted and when I compare myself to other far worse off than I am--the Guantanamo and Pelican Bay prisoners, Marie Mason, Afra Siddiqui, Hugo Yogi Pinell, those under death Penalty like Kevin Cooper, the remaining Angola 2, Ruchel Magee and my fellow New Yorkers Jalil, Sekou, Herman, Seth, David, Abdul --let me stop before I choke up here... I know we MUST win my fight and the struggle for all other political prisoners to be freed. And then we must struggle for all to be free in this country.

How much can we, the People, take? Their austerity is barbaric cruelty with food stamps gone and public housing unavailable, permanently. How long can the 1% continue to rule and the corporations call the shots? There is so much wrong but we are not allowed to despair since we have been given sight in this land of the blind and hopeless and heartless, So, that said, let's once again get out there as often as needs be--for all the causes, for all the humanity. for the future. Forward, ever Forward !!
Lynne

[Peter Lemkin]

"I Do Not Want to Die in Prison": Cancer-Stricken Lawyer Lynne Stewart Seeks Compassionate Release

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Topics

Lynne Stewart

Guests

Jill Shellow, one of the lead attorneys working on Lynne Stewart's request for compassionate release.

Dr. Zenobia Brown, Lynne Stewart's daughter, and a hospice and palliative care specialist, with a master's in public health.

Ralph Poynter, Lynne Stewart's husband of 50 years. He visits her regularly.

Related

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May 14, 2013 | Story

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Jul 15, 2010 | News

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Oct 17, 2006 | Story

Links

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Bureau of Prisons Letter Denying Compassionate Release for Lynne Stewart

Read: Lynne Stewart's Letter to Judge John G. Koeltl

Watch all Democracy Now! reports on Lynne Stewart's case

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Lawyers for imprisoned attorney Lynne Stewart head to federal court today to seek her release from prison. Now 73 years old, Stewart is dying from cancer in a Texas prison. Last month, Stewart's treating physician in prison estimated her life expectancy is approximately 18 months. This comes after the Federal Bureau of Prisons denied Stewart's request for early release a denial her lawyers are appealing and hope to address today in a hearing before her original sentencing judge, Judge John Koeltl. In 2010, Stewart was sentenced to 10 years in prison for passing messages from her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, to his followers in Egypt. In a letter to Judge Koeltl, Stewart wrote: "I do not intend to go 'gently into that good night' as Dylan Thomas wrote. There is much to be done in this world. I do know that I do not want to die here in prison a strange and loveless place. I want to be where all is familiar in a word, home. ... I have no grandiose plans just good food, conversation, music. That is what I look forward to. And of course, my beloved husband Ralph my hero and help, my heart, through all the last 50 years. I need him and his strength and love now to be close to me as I get ready for the nearing moments of transition and then rest. If you indeed represent the merciful hand of the law, as against, in this case, a heartless bureaucracy, do not punish me further. Grant me release and allow me to die in dignity." We speak to her husband Ralph Poynter, her daughter Zenobia Brown, and her attorney Jill Shellow.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn to the case of the longtime civil rights attorney who is fighting for her lifebehind bars. Lynne Stewart has long been known as an attorney who championed unpopular clients who she felt should be fairly represented in court. This includes Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, often referred to as the blind sheikh, who was convicted of conspiring to blow up the U.N. and other landmarks in New York City. In 2010, Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 10 years in prison for passing messages from the sheikh to his followers.
Now 73 years old, she is dying from cancer in a Texas prison. Last month, Lynne Stewart's treating physician in the prison estimated her life expectancy is approximately 18 months. This came after the Federal Bureau of Prisons denied Stewart's request for early release, a denial her lawyers are appealing and hope to address today in a hearing before her original sentencing judge, Judge John Koeltl.
Before we're joined by one of her lawyers, along with Lynne Stewart's husband and daughter, who is a doctor, I want to read from a letter who wrote to Judgea letter that Lynne Stewart wrote to the judge that Democracy Now! obtained a copy of. Stewart wrote, in part, quote, "I do not intend to go 'gently into that good night' as Dylan Thomas wrote. There is much to be done in this world. I do know that I do not want to die here in prisona strange and loveless place. I want to be where all is familiarin a word, home. ... I have no grandiose plansjust good food, conversation, music. That is what I look forward to. And of course, my beloved husband Ralphmy hero and help, my heart, through all the last 50 years. I need him and his strength and love now to be close to me as I get ready for the nearing moments of transition and then rest. If you indeed represent the merciful hand of the law, as against, in this case, a heartless bureaucracy, do not punish me further. Grant me release and allow me to die in dignity." That was what Lynne Stewart wrote to the judge who will hear arguments today in federal court for her compassionate release.
This is Lynne Stewart in 2009 when she spoke to Democracy Now! in her last broadcast interview before beginning her prison sentence. Lynne Stewart explained the background of the case and why she had been charged.

LYNNE STEWART: I represented Sheikh Omar at trialthat was in 1995along with Ramsey Clark and Abdeen Jabara. I was lead trial counsel. He was convicted in September of '95, sentenced to a life prison plus a hundred years, or some sortone of the usual outlandish sentences. We continued, all three of us, to visit him while he was in jailhe was a political client; that means that he is targeted by the governmentand because it is so important to prisoners to be able to have access to their lawyers.

Sometime in 1998, I think maybe it was, they imposed severe restrictions on him. That is, his ability to communicate with the outside world, to have interviews, to be able to even call his family, was limited by something called special administrative measures. The lawyers were asked to sign on for these special administrative measures and warned that if these measures were not adhered to, they could indeed lose contact with their clientin other words, be removed from his case.

In 2000, I visited the sheikh, and he asked me to make a press release. This press release had to do with the current status of an organization that at that point was basically defunct, the Gama'a al-Islamiyya. And I agreed to do that. In May ofmaybe it was later than that. Sometime in 2000, I made the press release.

Interestingly enough, we found out later that the Clinton administration, under Janet Reno, had the option to prosecute me, and they declined to do so, based on the notion that without lawyers like me or the late Bill Kunstler or many that I could name, the cause of justice is not well served. They need the gadflies.

So, at any rate, they made me sign onto the agreement again not to do this. They did not stop me from representing him. I continued to represent him.

And it was only after 9/11, in April of 2002, that John Ashcroft came to New York, announced the indictment of me, my paralegal and the interpreter for the case, on grounds of materially aiding a terrorist organization. One of the footnotes to the case, of course, is that Ashcroft also appeared on nationwide television with Letterman that night ballyhooing the great work of Bush's Justice Department in indicting.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Lynne Stewart speaking in 2009 on Democracy Now! in her last broadcast interview before beginning her prison sentence. She has served 46 months so far of her 10-year sentence. That's just shy of four years.
For more, we are joined by Jill Shellow, one of the lead attorneys for Stewart who will be in court today. We're also joined by Lynne's husband, Ralph Poynter, and her daughter, Dr. Zenobia Brown, who is a hospice and palliative care specialist with a master's in public health. We asked prison officials if Lynne herself could join us by telephone from the Fort Carswell Federal Prison, but they did not respond to our requests. Our producer, Renée Feltz, visited her a few weeks ago, when we did our report on her from the prison.
We welcome all of you to Democracy Now! Let's beginRalph Poynter, your wife, Lynne, in prison, you visited her last week.
RALPH POYNTER: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the significance of today's hearing.
RALPH POYNTER: Well, it is possible that Lynne would be released by the judge. It is possible that he will reserve decision. There are many possibilities. It is possible that he would agree with the prosecution. We do not know.
We are showing support by massing people in front of the courtroom, in the courtroom. The 20,000 signatures that came in to support Lynne's compassionate release, a numbermany people around the world, in Brazilyou name the country, we have a letter from that particular area. And so, there are many people who understand the injustice that's taking place here, and many people have signed on in support of Lynne in her struggle for liberation.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to read a letter from the Federal Bureau of Prisons Assistant Director Kathleen Kenney, dated June 24th, in which she denied Lynne Stewart's request for compassionate release. She wrote, quote, "To date, she has been responding well to treatment. Ms. Stewart is ambulatory and independent in her Activities of Daily Living. While her illness is very serious, she is not suffering from a condition that is terminal within 18 months. Accordingly, Ms. Stewart does not present circumstances considered to be extraordinary and compelling to merit RIS at this time," unquote.
Now I want to compare that to the prognosis given by Lynne Stewart's treating physician before she went into prison. Dr. Grossbard wrote in July 2012, about a year ago, quote, "The fact that Ms. Stewart's disease has progressed on therapy along with the decline in her overall performance status and medical condition suggests [that] her survival will be less than 12 months at this time."
IfJill Shellow, you're Lynne Stewart's attorney. She was denied compassionate release. Is this your last chance today with Judge Koeltl, the original judge in her case?
JILL SHELLOW: I hope not. I think it's going to be part of a process. Lynne hasas a letter that you startedthat you started to read from Kathy Kenney at the Bureau of Prisons says, if your circumstances change, you may seek reconsideration. Lynne has sought reconsideration of that denial. I believe that Judge Koeltl will hear us today. And while he could rule today, I believe it's also possible that we willthat we will appear before him again at least once before this matter is resolved.
AMY GOODMAN: I also want to get response to a comment made by Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor who was Lynne Stewart's adversary during the 1995 trial of Mr. Abdel Rahman. He said he had no problem with the idea that prisoners like Abdel Rahman, who are serving life sentences for heinous offenses, should have to die in prison. But regarding Lynne Stewart's case, he said, quote, "As a private citizen who was very fond of Lynne when we dealt with each other, I prefer to keep my thoughts to myself and my prayers for Lynne and her family." I want to turn to Lynne's daughter, to Dr. Zenobia Brown. What will happen if Lynne were to be released? How will she be cared for?
DR. ZENOBIA BROWN: She would probably continue with the same treatment she's been getting in prison. I think the piece that most people are not sort of cognizant of is that at this stage of cancer there is no cure. So, basically, it is a battle for time. And at this point, she is losing that battle, and that is clear. That is why it was so shocking when the BOP denied her compassionate release based on really what was not the case. There were 200 pages of medical records that went intothat went up to Washington and that would appear that none of them were reviewed, that no specialist in palliative care or no one who has any prognostic background looked at a single document.
AMY GOODMAN: You are a special in palliativea specialist in palliative care?
DR. ZENOBIA BROWN: Right, and people facing life-limiting illness. So, just sort of looking through it, they literally made this decision based on a single physician's comment that the patient was responding well. No doctor in this country is really trained to deal out justice. And basically, the entire case of whether my mother would be released or not was on a two-sentence letter from her treating oncologist. So, just thesort of the injustice of that and the fact that there really was no sort of objective party looking at this data isit really is mind-boggling.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to read part of a 2012 report by Human Rights Watch on compassionate release in U.S. federal prisons. Quote, "Although we do not know how many prisoners have asked the [Bureau of Prisons, or] BOP to make motions on their behalfbecause the BOP does not keep such recordswe do know the BOP rarely does so. The federal prison system houses over 218,000 prisoners, yet in 2011, the BOP filed only 30 motions for early release, and between January 1 and November 15, 2012, it filed 37. Since 1992, the annual average number of prisoners who received compassionate release has been less than two dozen. Compassionate release is conspicuous for its absence." Dr. Zenobia Brown, could you respond to that? And, I mean, it's quite remarkable that you are a hospice physician.
DR. ZENOBIA BROWN: The irony is shocking. Really, I mean, it almost is a no-brainer. The BOP has no interest in releasing prisoners. I mean, that's not their business. Their business is sort of heads in the beds. So to put them in charge of deciding whether or not these cases even get presented isI mean, there's no one who would sort of support that that's the way this should be done. And also, this sort of arbitrary increase from 12 months to 18 months, there's no medical foundation for. There's no sort ofresearch is not done on a 12- to 18-month basis, so that's also completely arbitrary. And in mom's case, basically, the physicians, who are visiting with her in Carswell every day, see her losing 20 pounds, supported her compassionate release, only to have it denied at
AMY GOODMAN: The prison warden supported compassionate release.
DR. ZENOBIA BROWN: Yeah. So, to sort of then have it denied at this higher level is justit's heinous, and it is cruel and unusual.
AMY GOODMAN: How would you care for her if she were released?
DR. ZENOBIA BROWN: It's doing all of those thingI mean, I think anyone who has battled cancer knows that just being treated for cancer outside of prison is cruel and unusual. It is very difficult. It is trying physically. It is trying emotionally. There are some basic things, like, for example, when she's in prison and has sort of life-threatening low blood counts, sort of nothing is done. She has no place to go. There's no recourse. There's no one to call. There's no one to treat her. So she could, as she has seen her cell mates die horrible deaths with no medical careso the difference is vast, meaning, if she got a fever, we would take her to the emergency room, we would take her to a doctor. If she has pain, we will make sure she's notI mean, she has metastatic disease to the bonemake sure that she's not having pain in the middle of the night; make sure thatshe has, you know, pleural effusions, which is fluid on her lungsmake sure that she can breathe. You know, I mean, it's so basic. I mean, it's just humanitarian. We're not talking about, you know, sort of wild and outrageous treatments. It's just basic, compassionate care.
AMY GOODMAN: Ralph, if you could talk about your visits to her in prison and the comment that she's living a fine, independent life within the walls of the prison.
RALPH POYNTER: That isLynne calls it a misstatement. I call it a total lie, because Lynne does nothing for herself. Everything is done for her. She sits in a bed. In a prison, you have to make your own bed. Lynne does not have to. She does not take long walks. The prison brings her food. Everything is done for her as she sits. And so, for them to say that she can take care of herself is just outrageous. And obviously she does not. She looks to have a walker. To walk around the visiting room is a chore. And, of course, in prison, they don't like you to be close, and so we don't walk, because she holds on to walk. And it'sfor them to make a statement like that, that she's improving, and when we all know that her lungs are being clogged, this is dangerous, a dangerous situation, and the prison wants her dead. I don't call them "prisons" anymore; I call them "death camps."
AMY GOODMAN: Jill Shellow, what will you be arguing in court?
JILL SHELLOW: That the Bureau of Prisons failure to make the motion, failure to come to court and ask that her sentence be reduced is, in and of itself, a constitutional violation. It gives Judge Koeltl the authority, both that combined withwith the great habeas writ. He has the power to reduce her sentence or vacate her sentence. There are exceptional and compelling circumstances. That's beyond doubt. The governmentthe United States attorney's office doesn't dispute that she's dying. It doesn't dispute that at this point her doctor says that she has less than 18 months to live. It doesn't dispute that the warden and the doctors who have been caring for her at Carswell believe that she should be released. There is no excuse. None. And that's the argument.
AMY GOODMAN: I remember, you know, covering this case all of the years that Lynne was going through this in court, and that moment when she came out on the courthouse steps, this very controversial moment. She had been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. She looks out. Her grandchildren are weeping there. And she is alsoI haven't seen her in prison, but a very funny person, right? She uses humor to comfort people. And seeing people grieving like that, as she was sentenced first to two-and-a-half years, she said something like, "Don't worry. I can do it standing on my head."
RALPH POYNTER: That is a misstatement. If you go
AMY GOODMAN: Tell me what she said.
RALPH POYNTER: What she had said, "As many of my clients have said to me when they received a sentence that was less than possiblepossibly expected, 'I can do that standing on my head.'" Now that's a big difference than saying, "I can do that standing on my head." And if you go back and review the tapes, it is very clear what she said. And she began by thanking the judge. And all of this has been skipped by the media, who has lied about what Lynne said.
AMY GOODMAN: So, why this is relevant at all is the fact that Lynne ended up havingbeing sentenced to 10 years. Can you explain what happened, how she was sentenced to two-and-a-half years, and then 10, Jill Shellow?
JILL SHELLOW: I wish II wish I had a good explanation. I can tell you technically how it happened. I can tell you that when Lynne appealed her conviction, the underlying conviction for the conduct, the government cross-appealed her sentence. The conviction was affirmed, and the sentence was vacated, with directions to Judge Koeltl, in no uncertain terms, that the court of appeals thought the 28 months was too lenient. Judge Koeltl then, following what he believed, I'm sure, to be the instructions of the court of appeals, sentenced her to 10 years. The only thing that changed between his first sentence and his second sentence was the statement that Ralph described and the court of appeals opinion. Nothing other than that changed. And that's one of the issues that's presently pending in the Supreme Court. Lynne'swe filed a cert petition on Lynne's behalf. It was filed earlier this year. It will be conferenced at the end of September. The solicitor general has opposed that, which is surprising only in that the solicitor general does not file very many oppositions. And that will be a question that hopefully the Supreme Court will address.
AMY GOODMAN: What time today is the court hearing? I know that it's going to be packed.
JILL SHELLOW: Two-thirty.
AMY GOODMAN: And it's at the?
JILL SHELLOW: Foley Square, 500 Pearl Street.

[Peter Lemkin]

Lynne Stewart, Our Lady Mandela, in the Season of Giving
By Gary Corseri


Lynne Stewart
(image by Wikipedia)


She is ten feet tall" and dying in her cage.
While Obama and Cameron take "selfies,"
shedding crocodile tears,
our Lady Mandela gazes over
the path she has made by her walking.
After his funeral, American drones
kill fifteen people in Yemen.
(Where in the world is Yemen?)
American shoppers rampage, and trample
those in the aisles of their trinkets.
She said she believed "directed violence"
(just as Mandela had said)
would topple the anarchist State
(engorged by its own helter-skelter
in the best tradition of Manson).
In New York City or Yemen,
with drones or tasers or wars,
the Manifold State is watching,
its "laws" abated by judges,
conducting kangaroo courts.
"Who will judge the judges?"
Juvenal wrote about Rome,
which crucified a preacher
for driving money-changers
out of the House of God.
They slashed his back with lashes,
collapsed his lungs on a crossbow,
then shot him into the sky--
for mourning or redemption,
depending on one's view.
Now It imposes its laws
on a woman wedded to Law,
who fought for the truth of the Law,
to publish it like Luther,
on pain of execrations.
On pain of separation
from family, home, and her Cause.
Even a sentence of cancer
cannot deter her Cause.
She can never betray her Cause.
Over the matricide planet
her thoughts take billowing wing:
the State's cells metastasize
in every corporate prison,
in every farmed-out heart.
Miley Cyrus twerks her ass
in the face of the hubbubbed mob.
Annointed pundits feign disdain,
then tweet pictures", but none
of Lynne alone in her cage.
The "people" scurry like ants,
monitored and surveiled, liable,
without notice, to be snuffed;
emulsified like organic dirt
under the heels of the State--
above the Law, acting in the name of Law,
sanctioning crime and murder,
in the name of marmoreal memes:
"We the People" in "the home of the brave,"
"created equal" in "the land of the free."

"Lynne Stewart: (born October 8, 1939) is aformer attorney who was known for representing controversial, poor, and oftenunpopular defendants. She was convictedon charges of conspiracy and sentenced to 28 months in prison. Her convictionled to her being" disbarred. She was re-sentenced on July 15, 2010, to 10years in prison in light of her alleged perjury at her trial. She is currentlyserving her sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, a federal prisonnear Fort Worth, Texas." NOTE-UPDATE: Herbreast cancer has metastasized, and her doctors predict she has about 1 year tolive. Her requests for a "mercy" releasehave been repeatedly denied, despite some 40,000 signatures on a petition forsuch a release.

FREE LYNN STEWART AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

[Magda Hassan]

Too little too late but good news in any case. Lynne Stewart is free at last.

U.S. judge releases dying lawyer convicted of aiding terrorism

[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD] A police officer puts his arm around disbarred lawyer Lynne Stewart as she arrives at federal court to begin her prison sentence in New York (Chip East Reuters, / December 31, 2013)
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Jonathan Stempel Reuters 4:54 p.m. CST, December 31, 2013


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday granted Lynne Stewart, a former defense lawyer convicted of aiding terrorism, a "compassionate" release from prison because she is dying of cancer.

Stewart, 74, has been serving a 10-year sentence over her 2005 conviction for helping a client, blind Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, smuggle messages from prison to Egypt's Islamic Group, which the U.S. government had listed as a terrorist organization.

Earlier this year, Stewart asked U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan for early release under a Federal Bureau of Prisons program for terminally ill inmates.

Koeltl, who in August had denied the request, noting that the Bureau of Prisons had not supported it, on Tuesday granted the request, following a recommendation for release from the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Koeltl reduced Stewart's sentence to the time she has already served and ordered Stewart released as soon as her medical condition permits, according to a court filing.

The Bureau of Prisons and Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, had recommended that Stewart be released from the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, and to live in Brooklyn, New York, with her son, a lawyer.

The government said Stewart has Stage IV breast cancer that has metastasized to the lung and bone and is expected to live 18 months or less.

It said her terminal medical condition and limited life expectancy were "extraordinary and compelling reasons" to reduce the sentence and that Stewart posed a "relatively limited" risk of recidivism and danger to the community.

Prior to being disbarred, Stewart had been known for representing controversial defendants, including one-time crime underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano.

"My client and I are overjoyed that she will be able to spend her remaining days with her family," Jill Shellow, a lawyer for Stewart, said in a phone interview. "It restores my faith in the Department of Justice to do the right thing."

Koeltl imposed the 10-year sentence in 2010 after a federal appeals court found Stewart's original 28-month term too short.

Abdel-Rahman was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack the United Nations and other New York City landmarks, following the 1993 truck bombing at the World Trade Center.

The case is USA v. Sattar et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 1:02-cr-00395.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg; editing by Richard Chang and Leslie Adler)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-r...2068.story

[Peter Lemkin]

It is late - too late and NEVER should have happened - not one day in prison!...but at least her last days are with her family and friends and FREE! I think they likely gave her the cancer - it can be done chemically or by use of radiation.

[Magda Hassan]

Days of Revolt: The Return of the Radical

By Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges interviews disbarred civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart and civil rights activist Ralph Poynter. They discuss the and debate where that political consciousness is today in the face of worsening social and economic conditions.

Posted June 03, 2016