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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.[30][31] Her conviction meant automatic disbarment, and on October 16, 2006, Judge Koeltl sentenced Stewart to 28 months in prison. Yousry and Sattar were sentenced to 20 months and 28 years, respectively.[32] Yousry was released in 2011. Sattar is serving his sentence at the Federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.[33]
Stewart remained free on bail pending the results of her appeal.[34] However, the appeal also raised the stakes, in that the United States Attorney's office asked the Court of Appeals not only to uphold the conviction but to require a much longer sentence than Judge Koeltl imposed. This risk only grew when, after the shock of conviction and facing decades in prison, her relief upon being sentenced to 28 months led her to exult spontaneously to the press, "I can do that standing on my head." For the sentencing judge to hear that would be unfortunate for her, if the appeals court were to direct that he re-sentence her to reflect her degree of remorse — as indeed it ultimately did.
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.".[35] According the The New York Times Stewart "acknowledged ... that she knowingly violated prison rules and was careless, overemotional and politically naïve in her representation of a terrorist client."[36] 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 original sentencing was to be in July 2005, but Stewart's defense team had repeatedly asked for and received numerous adjournments because she was receiving treatment for breast cancer. The defense team also argued that Stewart's age, problematic general health and cancer history could well mean that she would be in prison for the rest of her life if she were sentenced to serve several years.
The prosecution 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."[37]
Judge Koeltl refused both to impose the 30-year sentence proposed by the prosecution or to waive jail time entirely as Stewart had requested. He stated that while over her long career of representing unpopular clients Stewart had "performed a public service, not only to her clients, but to the nation," her conduct was “extraordinarily severe” and “criminal” in this case.[38]
[edit]Re-sentencing; 10 years
In response to Stewart's appeal, a customary three-judge Court of Appeals panel affirmed the convictions on November 17, 2009. Further, it ordered the district court to revoke Stewart's bail immediately, and remanded the case for resentencing in light of her possible perjury at her trial and other factors not properly considered against her by the sentencing judge.[39]
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. In January 2010, the full Second Circuit bench, in a split decision, declined to reconsider its panel's affirmance and resentencing directive. On July 15, 2010, Stewart was re-sentenced by Judge Koeltl on remand to 10 years in prison, taking into consideration what he concluded were false statements she made under oath at her trial and other factors as directed by the appellate court.[40]
The renowned veteran First Amendment lawyer Herald Price Fahringer contested the new sentence, bringing the case back to the Court of Appeals. On February 29, 2012, in a courtroom packed with Stewart's supporters, Fahringer presented oral argument based on freedom of speech. The same three-judge panel that had ordered the resentencing presided, skeptically probing his argument. But Fahringer insisted that out-of-court comments on a public issue cannot be punished with enhanced imprisonment, suggesting that otherwise "no one will be able to comment after a sentence for fear that the same thing could happen to them.
[edit]
She was re-sentenced on July 15, 2010, to 10 years in prison in light of her alleged perjury at her trial, and her lack of remorse after her initial sentencing.[2] She is currently serving her sentence at FMC Carswell in Ft Worth, Texas.[3]
Lynne’s Thoughts for May Day 2012
May 6th, 2012
Some thoughts from Lynne for May Day:
May Day, a celebration of the Worker and May Day, a commemoration of the Immigrant migration has now become a single holiday—and how appropriate that is !! The massive immigrant influx of the late 19 century was primarily a new supply of workers for the unending appetite of capitalism. Cheap Labor. Europe had become a dead end — wars, a class and land system that allowed no upward mobility and less and less opportunity for their children to learn or be somebody. My own Swedish great grandparents came over as indentured workers–having to pay for their passage by the sweat of their (yes, women too) brows doing farm labor for two years. This is a story that had been repeated through all the waves of immigrants–Italian, Greek, Slavic, Eastern European, Asian (Chinese, Filipino), Caribbean and now Latin American and African. What has shifted is the structure that now has the United States as the Great Imperialist, first ravaging their homes militarily and economically and then casting large numbers of newly created displaced people adrift on the economic seas. As one Jamaican friend and immigrant once said to me “Why shouldn’t we come here? You have everything stolen from us !!”
Before I go further, I have a word for two special groups of workers and their paths and current status in America. Blacks were kidnapped and brought here 400 years ago because it was “difficult “to enslave native Americans on their own lands. Africans were readily identifiable-and thus if you were Black you were a Slave. That has not changed much in 400 years. Just Ask Travon Martin and the other “targets”. Through all the years and all the continued resistance and struggle, that simple fact has always been determinative. Today, it is also being used as a wedge to separate natural allies into enemies. In the days preceding the Civil War, Workers and Abolitionists fought side by side to achieve equality for both. And that of course continues to be the goal–to demonstrate convincingly that all the media and all the tricks cannot divide the 99%. Black people can rightfully claim their fair share of all the wealth, they slaved for no pay, but that does not mean that others are not entitled as well. Mexicans, whose land was stolen from them, the other special group that must be mentioned, have this year almost stopped coming to the US. Does that mean more jobs for those already here?—NO NO NO that is a cruel and cheap hoax. Mexican immigrants do not take jobs that Blacks and other Americans want. Like all newcomers they do the grunt and dirty work — no-one in New York City could have a meal in a restaurant if it were not for the immigrants–mostly Latino, who provide the infrastructure. This is not a competition for jobs except so far as those who control the dollars make it so.
Two warnings to all from my own experience. First, as immigrants anxious to be part of the American dream DO NOT join the part of it that says I can get past on skin color and I can advance myself by being racist and exploiting “those” people just as every preceding immigrant group has done. My other alert is to People of Color—Do not blame the immigrants for your plight in white America, they came to work and made themselves indispensable. It is the same old white power structure that exploits both labor and race and racial differences for their own advancement that is responsible. Don’t adopt convenient scapegoats when the battle is there to be fought with the courage to do so against the true enemy.
The only PROGRESS to be sought on May DAY 2012 by all of us is a unity of purpose, by truly believing that an injury to one is an injury to all and acting in self defense against the powerful, unscrupulous forces who seek to destroy our movement. This year we are once again confronted with a Presidential Election that for many is choosing the “lesser of two evils”. Let me remind you that as James Baldwin, the Black author, once said–evil is always evil and the politicians including Mr. Obama have demonstrated their total untrustworthiness over and over and over. Promises ?– a hollow joke; and Programs?– on paper or words of the air — never put into practice. This is not to be Tolerated!!!
May Day is for the beginning of new offensives and we certainly have a vast choice — there is so much wrong, so much that needs fixing. We must band together until they are more afraid of OUR power than their greedy fear of losing their vast fortunes. This we Must do — our children and grandchildren assure us there is no choice, if there is to be a world for them to live and work and raise the next generations in.
- Lynne Stewart
Brief Update from Lynne
April 26th, 2012
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