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Lynne Stewart

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For the actress, see Lynne Marie Stewart.
Lynne Stewart

Lynne Feltham Stewart (born October 8, 1939) is an American radical activist, attorney, and convicted felon. She represents controversial, radical, and often unpopular defendants.

In 2005, Stewart was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists,[1] and sentenced to 28 months in prison. Her felony conviction led to her being automatically disbarred. She was convicted of helping pass messages from her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric convicted of planning terror attacks, to his followers in al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an organization designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States Secretary of State.[2]

She was re-sentenced on July 15, 2010 to 10 years in prison in light of perjury at her trial and other factors not properly considered against her by the sentencing judge.[3]

Education

Stewart was educated at Hope College, American University, and graduated with a B.A. in political science from Wagner College. She received a Masters in Library Science from Pratt Institute, and a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.

The Abdel-Rahman case

Omar Abdel-Rahman

Stewart was convicted of providing material support (through a press conference and allowing access by her translator) to a terrorist conspiracy to kill persons outside of the United States and conspiring to defraud the U.S. government when acting as counsel to Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric who was convicted in 1996 of plotting terrorist attacks against various sites in the New York City area. Specifically, she was accused, in a federal grand jury indictment, of passing Rahman's blessing for a resumption of terrorist operations to his fundamentalist Muslim terrorist cell in Egypt after cell members inquired whether they should continue to honor a ceasefire agreement with the Egyptian government.[4] The material support charges were dismissed in the summer of 2003, but in November 2003 Stewart was re-indicted[5] on charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism. She was convicted on these charges.

Stewart had accepted the condition that, in order to be allowed to meet with Abdel Rahman in prison, she would not "use [their] meetings, correspondence, or phone calls with Abdel Rahman to pass messages between third parties (including, but not limited to, the media) and Abdel Rahman".

Stewart claims that the dispute was over one communication on behalf of her client to his supporters via a Reuters article, followed by a clarification after it appeared to have been misinterpreted. The clarification said: "I [Omar Abdel-Rahman] am not withdrawing my support of the cease-fire, I am merely questioning it and I am urging you, who are on the ground there to discuss it and to include everyone in your discussions as we always have done."[6][7]

According to Judge John G. Koeltl,

A rational jury could have inferred that, by relaying a statement withdrawing support for a cessation of violence by an influential, pro-violence leader of a terrorist group, Stewart knew that she was providing support to those within the IG who sought to return to violence—who the jury could have found were participants in the Count Two conspiracy, particularly Taha.

(IG stands for Islamic Group, which was identified as a terrorist organization by the Secretary of State).[7]

Judge Koeltl also mentioned how attorneys Ramsey Clark and Abdeen Jabarra refused to issue letters publicly when given the opportunity to do it.[7] However, when Ramsey Clark was interviewed about the case on Democracy Now! on February 11, 2005, he said:

It is clear that Lynne Stewart and the truth and the Constitution of the United States are all victims of 9/11 and of a repressive government that is taking advantage of the fear that they have helped create arising from that that is destroying freedom in this country...This case would never have been brought except for the fear generated and the advantage that the Bush administration was taking of it by the events on September 11, 2001. In ordinary times and circumstances, it would be recognized that everything that Lynne did was exactly what an effective attorney representing a client zealously would be obligated to do...I don’t know of anything that Lynne did that I didn’t do. We did what we had to do to represent our clients. And if you don’t do that, then you don’t have truth before the jury or before the public and you don’t have the Constitutional right to the assistance of counsel.[6]

Michael Tigar, her attorney, gave his opinion of the significance of Ramsey Clark coming to her defense. Claiming the U.S. government was running 'concentration camps', he said:

Ramsey Clark set an example here because he didn’t have to come to court and stand up for Lynne, but he did it, and it shows that this case really is a threat to all the lawyers who are out there attempting to represent people that face these terrible consequences...The only way that we will ever get to the bottom of the American concentration camp abuses at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib is that if the lawyers for these prisoners are permitted to tell their stories to the world. If the government can shut off that communication, which they have attempted to do over and over and over again, these activities will continue in secret.[6]

Tigar had also represented Terry Nichols in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Supporters of Stewart alleged that the government charged her for her speech in defending the rights of her client. They believed that Stewart's efforts to release communications from her client were part of an appropriate defense method to gain public awareness and support. They also expressed alarm that wiretaps and hidden cameras authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act were used by the Government to gather evidence against her, which they called a violation of attorney-client privilege. George Soros' Open Society Institute also donated $20,000 to Stewart's legal defense fund in 2002.[8]

Conviction

On February 10, 2005, following a nine-month trial and 13 days of jury deliberations, Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists, and defrauding the U.S. government. Co-defendants Mohamed Yousry and Ahmed Sattar were found guilty as charged.[9][10] Her conviction meant automatic disbarment, and on October 16, 2006, Judge Koeltl sentenced Stewart to 28 months in prison.[11] Sattar is serving his sentence at the Federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.[12]

Sentencing submissions

In a letter to the court dated September 26, 2006, Stewart stated that her actions were consistent with how she had always represented her clients, but that she had failed to recognize the difference in a post-2001 America and, in hindsight, should have been more careful to avoid misinterpretation. Claiming that persons with 'other agendas' had misinterpreted her actions, she said: "I inadvertently allowed those with other agendas to corrupt the most precious and inviolate basis of our profession – the attorney-client relationship."[13]

The New York Times reported Stewart "acknowledged ... that she knowingly violated prison rules and was careless, overemotional and politically naïve in her representation of a terrorist client."[14]

Stewart requested that the Court exercise the sentencing discretion given judges by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Booker, and impose a non-custodial sentence. The government requested that the Court impose the maximum statutory penalty, saying, "We hope that this sentence of 30 years will not only punish Stewart for her actions, but serve as a deterrent for other lawyers who believe that they are above the rules and regulations of penal institutions or otherwise try to skirt the laws of this country."

Stewart's original sentencing was to be in July 2005, but Stewart's defense team had repeatedly asked for and received numerous adjournments (delaying sentencing for over a year) due to her needing treatment for breast cancer.

In explaining his refusal to either impose the 30-year sentence proposed by the prosecution or waive jail time entirely as Stewart had requested, the judge said that during her long career of representing unpopular clients Stewart had "performed a public service, not only to her clients, but to the nation," but that her actions in this case constituted "extraordinarily severe criminal conduct".[15]

Stewart and Yousry were free on bail pending decision of their appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The appeal was orally argued January 29, 2008. At the same time the court heard the Government's argument that the sentence for the crimes was too lenient.

Re-sentencing

On November 17, 2009, the Court of Appeals affirmed their convictions, ordered the district court to revoke their bail immediately, and remanded the case for resentencing in light of Stewart's possible perjury at her trial and other factors not properly considered against her by the sentencing judge.[16]

On November 19, 2009, Stewart surrendered to U.S. Marshals in New York City to begin serving a 28-month sentence as prisoner #53504-054. On July 15, 2010, Stewart was sentenced to 10-years in prison.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Lynne Stewart still combative after terror verdict". Thevillager.com. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  2. ^ "''Terrorismknowledgebase.org''". Tkb.org. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  3. ^ New York Post: Attorney who helped terrorist gets 10 years in prison Published 15 July 2010. Accessed 15 July 2010
  4. ^ "''Department of Justice''". Usdoj.gov. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  5. ^ "''findlaw.com''". News.findlaw.com. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  6. ^ a b c "Convicted Attorney Lynne Stewart: "You Can't Lock Up the Lawyers"". Democracy Now. February 11, 2005. Retrieved October 16, 2006.
  7. ^ a b c UNITED STATES of America v. Ahmed Abdel SATTAR, a/k/a “Abu Omar,” a/k/a “Dr. Ahmed,” Lynne Stewart, and Mohammed Yousry, Defendants. No. S1 02 CR. 395(JGK). Oct. 24, 2005.
  8. ^ Byron YorkSoros Funded Stewart Defense; National Review
  9. ^ "Superseding Indictment: U.S. v. Ahmed Abdel Sattar, Lynne Stewart, and Mohammed Yousry". News.findlaw.com. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  10. ^ "Civil rights attorney convicted in terror trial – February 10, 2005". CNN.com. February 14, 2005. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  11. ^ [1][dead link]
  12. ^ "Federal Bureau of Prisons". Bop.gov. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  13. ^ http://www.lynnestewart.org/Stewart%20Letter%20(Ex%201)%20scanned.pdf
  14. ^ Preston, Julia (September 29, 2006). "Lawyer in Terror Case Apologizes for Violating Special Prison Rules". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  15. ^ "Americas | US lawyer jailed on terror charge". BBC News. October 16, 2006. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  16. ^ "Conviction of disbarred lawyer Lynne Stewart upheld for smuggling messages to jailed terrorist". Nydailynews.com. November 17, 2009. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  17. ^ http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/07/15/2010-07-15_lynn_stewart_70yearold_radical_lawyer_sentenced_to_10_years_in_prison_for_aiding.html
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