top
San Francisco
San Francisco
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Rally to Free Lynne Stewart

lynnestewart2.jpg
Date:
Thursday, August 01, 2013
Time:
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Event Type:
Protest
Organizer/Author:
Carlos Villarreal
Location Details:
Federal Building
7th & Mission in San Francisco

Free Lynne Stewart Now!

Rally in Support of Activist lawyer and Guild Member Lynne Stewart
Thursday, August 1, Noon
Federal Building
7th & Mission in San Francisco

Send a message to Bureau of Prisons Director Charles E. Samuels Jr. that he must reverse his decision.

Long-time National Lawyers Guild member and activist lawyer Lynne Stewart needs our help and she needs it now! The Federal Bureau of Prisons has denied Lynne Stewart’s application for compassionate release, despite recommendations in favor from the warden at her facility, the Regional Office Director, and vetting of Stewart’s release plans by the Federal Probation Office in New York.
Lynne Stewart’s condition is deteriorating rapidly. Medical treatment to arrest the cancer that is metastasizing in her body has been halted because she is too weak to receive it. She remains in isolation, as her white blood cell count is so low that she is at risk for generalized infection.
For over 30 years, Lynne Stewart devoted her life to the oppressed – a constant advocate for the countless many deprived in the United States of their freedom and their rights. She, herself, was targeted and prosecuted because she defended vigorously her unpopular clients – people the U.S. government sought to execute, disappear, and demonize.

In 2006, Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 28-months. In 2009, she was resentenced to 10 years in federal prison in response to the vindictive dictates of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In the fall, the Supreme Court will consider her Certiorari petition on the basis of both Lynne’s and her client’s first amendment rights.

Lynne Stewart’s prosecution and continued imprisonment are an attempt to intimidate all attorneys who would represent unpopular clients, particularly those accused of being terrorists. It is a message to those of us in the legal community who understand how important it is that everyone accused of a crime, especially those accused of the most serious crimes, have a capable attorney both able and willing to zealously defend them.

The struggle to free Lynne Stewart continues on many fronts:

• Join Guild members for a rally Thursday, August 1, noon to 2:00 pm at the Federal building at 7th and Mission Streets.

• Join Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Dick Gregory, Alice Walker, Bianca Jagger, Pete Seeger, Ed Asner, Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, Daniel Berrigan, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, and 25,000 others in the United States and internationally who have signed the petition to free Lynne Stewart – at http://www.lynnestewart.org.
Added to the calendar on Thu, Jul 18, 2013 12:06PM

Comments (Hide Comments)
Emergency message from Ralph Poynter:

Special hearing on Lynne Stewart's appeal for Compassionate Release by Judge Koeltl

Wednesday July 31

500 Pearl St. in Manhattan

2 pm - Rally

3 pm - Court Hearing

From an ABC News report today:

A compassionate-release request was previously denied in part on the grounds that Stewart had more than 18 months to live. Her lawyer said her life expectancy is now less than 18 months and a compassionate-release application may be filed again.

In a handwritten note submitted with Shellow's application, Stewart wrote that she was "terribly weak and without much energy."

"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," Stewart said. "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."
by wexit
Jailed Attorney, Dying of Cancer, Asks Judge for Early Release

By Pervaiz Shallwani

Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart enters Manhattan federal court for her sentencing in 2006.
Lawyers for jailed civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart, who was convicted of helping an Egyptian sheikh relay jailhouse messages to his followers, pleaded with a federal judge on Wednesday for an early release because she is dying of stage IV breast cancer.

Ms. Stewart, 73 years old, deserves compassionate release because her health is deteriorating rapidly and she now has less than 18 months to live, her lawyers argued before U.S District Judge John Koeltl.

Last month, the federal Bureau of Prisons denied an earlier request Ms. Stewart made for compassionate release. She asked the judge to terminate the remainder of her sentence and release her into the custody of her husband and son in Brooklyn, where she would spend her final months.

But Bureau of Prisons officials said that while her illness is “very serious” she is not suffering from a condition that was terminal within 18 months, according to documents filed on Monday by defense attorney Jill Shellow.

Since then, the prison doctor overseeing Ms. Stewart’s care revised his prognosis and found that she has less than 18 months to live, Ms. Shellow said. Two other physicians who have also reviewed Ms. Stewart’s medical records reached similar conclusions.

As a result, Ms. Stewart asked the Bureau of Prisons to reconsider its June 24 ruling, and is also petitioning Judge Koeltl in the meantime, her attorneys said.

“Ms. Stewart is dying. Her condition is rapidly deteriorating,” Ms. Shellow wrote, asking the judge to give her client’s case expedited consideration.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dember questioned whether the court could consider such a request, saying there was no formal appeal.

The judge has asked the attorneys to submit documents outlining their arguments in the next week and will hold a hearing next Thursday.

Ms. Stewart was convicted in 2005 of conspiring to help terrorists by relaying messages from Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, helping him to communicate with his followers. Mr. Rahman, commonly known as “The Blind Sheikh”, is serving a life sentence for plotting to blow up several New York City landmarks and transit hubs.

Judge Koeltl initially sentenced Ms. Stewart to 28 months in prison, but later upgraded the duration to 10 years.

Ms. Stewart was not at the hearing. She is currently housed at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.

Her supporters held a rally outside the courthouse and packed the courtroom. As of Wednesday, nearly 25,000 people had signed a petition calling for her release.

Ms. Stewart was first diagnosed with cancer in 2005, and she has been imprisoned since 2009. Prison doctors determined last year that her cancer had returned, spreading throughout her body.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network