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Sign New Petition to Free Atty Lynne Stewart by Oct 8, her 74th Birthday
Attorney Lynne Stewart has a new petition for her compassionate release after her illegal conviction and sentence to federal prison in Texas. Please sign it at http://www.change.org/petitions/new-petition-to-free-lynne-stewart-support-compassionate-release so she may spend her 74th birthday, October 8, in the comfort of her home with family and friends.
Attorney Lynne Stewart has a new petition for her compassionate release after her illegal conviction and sentence to federal prison in Texas. Please sign it at http://www.change.org/petitions/new-petition-to-free-lynne-stewart-support-compassionate-release so she may spend her 74th birthday, October 8, in the comfort of her home with family and friends.
For more information on her case, see
http://lynnestewart.org/
Her husband, Ralph Poynter, has this message in support of the petition:
An outpouring of support is required once again to free renowned attorney Lynne Stewart. She has submitted a new application for compassionate release and received word on September 6 that FMC Carswell Warden Jody R. Upton had forwarded her papers to the Bureau of Prisons headquarters in Washington, D.C.
We must urge Bureau of Prisons Director Charles E. Samuels, Jr. to act expeditiously to review Lynne Stewart’s new application and to instruct the federal attorney to file a motion with the Bureau of Prisons’ recommendation of compassionate release. Judge John G. Koeltl has stated that he would consider the motion as soon as he receives it.
In July 2013, Lynne Stewart was given a conservative prognosis of 18 months by the oncologist contracted by the prison, meeting the new guidelines for compassionate release established by the Bureau of Prisons. Two months have passed since then and Lynne Stewart’s health is deteriorating rapidly.
Every day counts.
Please sign the new petition so that a letter from you is sent by email to Director Samuels and to Attorney General Holder.
Please distribute the new petition widely and urge others to sign it.
Over 30,000 people in the United States and internationally signed the first petition. Numbers are even greater if we include the support from prominent organizations. We must send a strong message again that Lynne Stewart should be free.
On October 8, Lynne Stewart will be 74 years old. She has devoted her life to the impoverished and oppressed, first as a school librarian in Harlem, New York and then for 30 years as an unwavering criminal defense attorney who always put her client’s interests above her own.
We do not want Lynne Stewart to celebrate her 74th birthday on October 8th in prison, but should that be the case, she has asked us all to raise our voices in protest with vigils outside U.S. Court Houses and other public centers.
For more information on her case, see
http://lynnestewart.org/
Her husband, Ralph Poynter, has this message in support of the petition:
An outpouring of support is required once again to free renowned attorney Lynne Stewart. She has submitted a new application for compassionate release and received word on September 6 that FMC Carswell Warden Jody R. Upton had forwarded her papers to the Bureau of Prisons headquarters in Washington, D.C.
We must urge Bureau of Prisons Director Charles E. Samuels, Jr. to act expeditiously to review Lynne Stewart’s new application and to instruct the federal attorney to file a motion with the Bureau of Prisons’ recommendation of compassionate release. Judge John G. Koeltl has stated that he would consider the motion as soon as he receives it.
In July 2013, Lynne Stewart was given a conservative prognosis of 18 months by the oncologist contracted by the prison, meeting the new guidelines for compassionate release established by the Bureau of Prisons. Two months have passed since then and Lynne Stewart’s health is deteriorating rapidly.
Every day counts.
Please sign the new petition so that a letter from you is sent by email to Director Samuels and to Attorney General Holder.
Please distribute the new petition widely and urge others to sign it.
Over 30,000 people in the United States and internationally signed the first petition. Numbers are even greater if we include the support from prominent organizations. We must send a strong message again that Lynne Stewart should be free.
On October 8, Lynne Stewart will be 74 years old. She has devoted her life to the impoverished and oppressed, first as a school librarian in Harlem, New York and then for 30 years as an unwavering criminal defense attorney who always put her client’s interests above her own.
We do not want Lynne Stewart to celebrate her 74th birthday on October 8th in prison, but should that be the case, she has asked us all to raise our voices in protest with vigils outside U.S. Court Houses and other public centers.
For more information:
http://lynnestewart.org/
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The continued persecution and brutal imprisonment of peoples' attorney Lynne Stewart is an astonishing, grave injustice, not only to Lynne but to all of us. When an attorney can be charged, convicted by association with alleged acts of the client and jailed as a political prisoner, simply for providing a strong legal defense , the US Constitution, judicial system, basic legal and human rights protections are effectively eviscerated and meaningless, and all professionals, indeed any and all people, are at risk of serving the same fate and tragedy.
This is also a matter of the remaining months of life for Lynne Stewart, who is declining with late stage cancer while denied compassionate release as provided by law and would have been released and benefited from advanced treatment, surgery and family care under the term of her original sentence, incredibly extended by an appeal court to 10 years, for Lynne a life and death sentence. The barbaric conditions of her confinement, including shackling during medical procedures (apparently what passes for treatment in Carswell federal prison), are beyond "cruel and unusual punishment," a form of torture, a shame and mockery of our supposedly democratic, equitable political, justice and health care systems.
Lynne Stewart is a renowned, respected civil rights attorney (as acknowledged by the sentencing judge), who was singled out in a show trail for her professional practice as defense attorney, jailed as a political prisoner straight up, and so far effectively denied her right to process and consideration by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and court of the content and merits of her application for compassionate release.
And jailed for what? Basically, on noncompliance with clearly unconstitutional administrative regulations from the fear crazed Patriot Act, which she had little choice in accepting in order to have access to and defend her client; on guilt by association of her legal representation and communication of a message to supporters of a state targeted, demonized client, who is arguably falsely portrayed and convicted as a "terrorist" (as demonstrated by Lynne in "Homeland" court), yet anyway has a fundamental right to legal defense services, the same as provided by other attorneys who were not so prosecuted under these regulations!
Lynne Stewart is another casualty of the so called "War on Terror," but we are all the losers and victims.
That stark reality, fundamental injustice and urgency is the overwhelming shared sense and common cause of decent people everywhere, including various organizations and over 30,000 signers of the initial petition supporting her application for compassionate release. Now medically assessed with less than 18 months to live (within the arbitrary standard set by the BOP), Lynne has submitted a second application for compassionate release.
As a matter of basic human rights, justice, democracy and federal law, she must be set free to be home with her family and receive the best available medical and hospice care. Besides a model, selfless peoples' lawyer and public servant, Lynne Stewart is a wife, mother and grandmother. She is like and could be the mother of any of us. That's how we can feel and think of her, a strong brave woman and our mother.
As a prisoner with a deteriorating, terminal medical condition, Lynne a right to compassionate release, granted and defined under the terms and procedures of the 1984 Sentencing Act. The BOP Director has the legal responsibility to review and move her valid application for release, as twice recommended by the prison warden and validated by bureau staff inspections, the facts and documentation presented in the application. Yet the BOP denial of Lynne's first application isn't surprising but typical. The bureau has generally failed it's obligations and subverted the law by ignoring and denying the substance of all but a few such applications and appears to be in the business of "heads in beds," repression and containment of activists. Only the the power of this petition and the growing support and pressure of the international grassroots campaign can change this reality and compel the BOP Director to exercise responsibility and move for Lynne Stewart's timely release.
This is also a matter of the remaining months of life for Lynne Stewart, who is declining with late stage cancer while denied compassionate release as provided by law and would have been released and benefited from advanced treatment, surgery and family care under the term of her original sentence, incredibly extended by an appeal court to 10 years, for Lynne a life and death sentence. The barbaric conditions of her confinement, including shackling during medical procedures (apparently what passes for treatment in Carswell federal prison), are beyond "cruel and unusual punishment," a form of torture, a shame and mockery of our supposedly democratic, equitable political, justice and health care systems.
Lynne Stewart is a renowned, respected civil rights attorney (as acknowledged by the sentencing judge), who was singled out in a show trail for her professional practice as defense attorney, jailed as a political prisoner straight up, and so far effectively denied her right to process and consideration by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and court of the content and merits of her application for compassionate release.
And jailed for what? Basically, on noncompliance with clearly unconstitutional administrative regulations from the fear crazed Patriot Act, which she had little choice in accepting in order to have access to and defend her client; on guilt by association of her legal representation and communication of a message to supporters of a state targeted, demonized client, who is arguably falsely portrayed and convicted as a "terrorist" (as demonstrated by Lynne in "Homeland" court), yet anyway has a fundamental right to legal defense services, the same as provided by other attorneys who were not so prosecuted under these regulations!
Lynne Stewart is another casualty of the so called "War on Terror," but we are all the losers and victims.
That stark reality, fundamental injustice and urgency is the overwhelming shared sense and common cause of decent people everywhere, including various organizations and over 30,000 signers of the initial petition supporting her application for compassionate release. Now medically assessed with less than 18 months to live (within the arbitrary standard set by the BOP), Lynne has submitted a second application for compassionate release.
As a matter of basic human rights, justice, democracy and federal law, she must be set free to be home with her family and receive the best available medical and hospice care. Besides a model, selfless peoples' lawyer and public servant, Lynne Stewart is a wife, mother and grandmother. She is like and could be the mother of any of us. That's how we can feel and think of her, a strong brave woman and our mother.
As a prisoner with a deteriorating, terminal medical condition, Lynne a right to compassionate release, granted and defined under the terms and procedures of the 1984 Sentencing Act. The BOP Director has the legal responsibility to review and move her valid application for release, as twice recommended by the prison warden and validated by bureau staff inspections, the facts and documentation presented in the application. Yet the BOP denial of Lynne's first application isn't surprising but typical. The bureau has generally failed it's obligations and subverted the law by ignoring and denying the substance of all but a few such applications and appears to be in the business of "heads in beds," repression and containment of activists. Only the the power of this petition and the growing support and pressure of the international grassroots campaign can change this reality and compel the BOP Director to exercise responsibility and move for Lynne Stewart's timely release.
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