Too little, too late

On New Year's Eve 2013 Lynne Stewart, suffering from advanced breast cancer, was released from federal prison by Federal Judge John Koelti. As you may remember, Ms. Stewart represented the so-called blind cleric, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was charged with committing acts of terrorism.

Ms. Stewart ran afoul of the government when she passed on messages from her incarcerated client to the media. The government alleged that she acted as a courier for a terrorist group.A jury convicted her and a judge sentenced her to 28 months in federal prison. Ms. Stewart appealed the conviction.

After the conviction was upheld, the appellate court sent the case back down for resentencing in light of the court's belief that Ms. Stewart committed perjury during the original trial. The court, not being  too fond of Ms. Stewart's comment that she could do 28 months in federal prison standing on her head, upped her sentence to ten years in July 2010.

Between her conviction and re-sentencing Ms. Stewart was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Her health condition worsened while in prison and she was transferred to Carswell Federal Medical Center in Forth Worth, Texas

Her supporters immediately began petitioning for compassionate release so that Ms. Stewart wouldn't have to spend her final days behind bars. In June of last year her request was denied by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Her husband never gave up and this past December federal prosecutors notified Judge Koelti that Ms. Stewart had only 18 months to live. They recommended that the judge grant Ms. Stewart compassionate release.

On New Year's Eve, Judge Koelti did the right thing and signed an order granting Ms. Stewart her release.

Ms. Stewart should never have been sentenced to ten years in prison. It is shameful that it took her imminent death to undo the wrong. Ms. Stewart did her time because she had the nerve to thumb her nose at the government. She had the guts to do what she thought was right for her client. Her client's right to effective counsel was curtailed by the government. Her First Amendment rights were violated by the government. Still she fought.

We deal with the mighty power of the state on a daily basis. We have to stand in front of the court and announce that we are going to do whatever we can do to gum up the works of the government's plea mill. Luckily most of us will never have to face prison for representing our clients.

See also:

"Dying lawyer Lynne Stewart's jubilant return home after winning compassionate release," Democracy Now! (1/2/2014)

Lynne Stewart: Warrior

Judges don't necessarily like us. We get in the way. We're the ones who force the state to do things like actually producing evidence.

Sometimes we represent the person who could be your neighbor. Other times we represent people accused of committing heinous crimes.

It takes a certain amount of courage to stand beside your client and tell the judge who has done everything imaginable to try to force your client to enter a plea, that you are announcing ready for trial.

Lynne Stewart did that. Ms. Stewart represented an alleged terrorist. A man the federal government accused of plotting to commit acts of terrorism in the United States. To the world outside the courtroom he was Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind cleric. To Ms. Stewart, he was her client. And she set about defending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights while representing Mr. Abdel-Rahman to the best of her ability.

Along the way she ran afoul of los federales. While other attorneys were willing to bend to the government's demands. The government told attorneys representing accused terrorists that they could not pass messages from their clients to any third parties - or they couldn't see their clients. The measures were designed to hamper the ability of the attorneys to provide adequate representation. Ms. Stewart wasn't playing that game.

Following her post-conviction work on Mr. Abdel-Rahman's case, Ms. Stewart was indicted for allegedly passing messages from her client to his terrorist network. After a jury convicted her, Ms. Stewart was sentenced to 28 months in prison. After sentence was pronounced she declared that she could do the time standing on her head.

Ms. Stewart appealed the case and the appeals court sent it back for resentencing. The judge, being none too pleased with Ms. Stewart's post-trial remarks, upped her sentence to ten years because he didn't think she was remorseful enough. The Second Court of Appeals then buried their heads in the sand and affirmed the trial court's decision, finding nothing wrong with adding almost eight years to a sentence because someone didn't bow down for the government.

Writes Scott Greenfield:

The choice was sign off on rules that shouldn't constitutionally exist or leave your client effectively unrepresented. Lynne signed off, not because she agreed, but because it was the only way to defend her client.  Faced with a catch-22 (in its truest sense), Lynne did what she had to do to serve the highest purpose of a defense lawyer.  That she falsely affirmed adherence to the SAMs to do was a lesser of evils, where she made the choice of putting the zealous representation of her client ahead of felching the United States government. 

But the second prong of the appellate argument, that she was punished for saying that she could do the sentencen standing on her head introduces a different constitutional right into the mix.  While one defendant was given an extra six months for smiling during sentence, Lynne's sentenced was increased by 92 months for expressing her opinion following her original sentence.

That's right. Ms. Stewart exercised her First Amendment rights and was punished for it. She didn't believe she had done anything wrong and was punished because of it. Ms. Stewart stood up against the government and defended her client. And for that she was punished.

Lynne Stewart is a warrior who did what many of us are afraid to do. She walked to the brink and refused to blink.