Lynne
Stewart's Crime Of Courage, Honor And Resisting Tyranny
By Stephen Lendman
19 October, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Years from now, Lynne F. Stewart's
name will be spoken of with even greater reverence than it is today.
On October 17, this courageous and redoubtable soft-spoken civil rights
defense lawyer was vindicated in the same Foley Square New York federal
courtroom where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were unjustly framed, convicted
and sentenced to death in April, 1951 in an act of state-sponsored vengeance
for the crime of conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act. It was done
in that earlier age of hysteria in the name of national security against
an invented threat of that era that didn't exist.
On October 17, Lynne Stewart
faced the possibility of 30 years in prison because of a modern-day
state-sponsored campaign of intimidation using her trial to set a precedent
allowing the government the right to deny those it accuses of "terrorism"
their right of due process represented by competent counsel. A decisive
Justice Department victory would have effectively destroyed the fundamental
right under Section 1 of the 14th Amendment in the Constitution that
guarantees all US citizens are not deprived of their right of "life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It would
also have been a renunciation of the landmark unanimous 1963 Supreme
Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright that affirmed the Sixth Amendment
right of a defendant "in all criminal prosecutions....(to) the
right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury....to have
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have
the ssistance of Counsel for his defense."
Lynne Stewart was charged
under the 1996 Antiterrorism Act with four counts of aiding and abetting
a terrorist organization. She was unjustly accused of providing material
support for terrorism and violating Special Administrative Measures
(SAMS) imposed by the US Bureau of Prisons, which included a gag order
on Sheik Abdel Rahman whom she represented in his 1995 trial. At the
request of former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark, she was serving
as a member of the court-appointed defense team for Sheik Rahman, known
as the blind (Egyptian Muslim) Sheik. He was convicted in 2005 and is
now serving a life sentence for "Seditious Conspiracy" in
connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Because he was
a Muslim and accused of being a "radical" cleric, he was practically
radioactive and not the kind of client most defense attorneys have the
courage to accept in this era of anti-Muslim hysteria. Rahman was connected
with the Islamic Group, an organization on the State Department's terrorist
list that his country accuses of supporting militant Islam and advocating
replacing Middle East secular governments with an Islamic caliphate.
Lynne Stewart has never been
one to back off or shun controversy. She spent 30 years as a civil rights
attorney acting as a courageous champion for the rights of the poor,
underprivileged and others in society who are never afforded due process
unless they're lucky enough to have an advocate like her. Where others
fear to tread, she was willing to defend such controversial figures
as David Gilbert of the Weather Underground, Richard Williams of the
United Freedom Front, Sekou Odinga and Nasser Ahmed of the Black Liberation
Army and many others like them. She always understood the personal risk
to herself and knows the state uses every underhanded trick it can to
convict these kinds of defendants wanting to lock them away for long
prison terms even if they're innocent.
The Rahman case was so high-profile,
it made Stewart herself a target, and her ordeal began on April 9, 2002
when FBI agents came to her Brooklyn home, handcuffed and arrested her.
They also searched her Manhattan office and removed boxes of papers
and files on all her cases. It was the beginning of a long struggle
that included Stewart's battle with breast cancer. It played out in
the Foley Square courtroom resulting in her conviction on all four counts
of her indictment on February 10, 2005. Stewart's trial was a gross
miscarriage of justice in a proceeding with echoes of the worst of McCarthyist
tactics. Inflammatory terrorist images were displayed in the courtroom
to incite the jurors, and prosecutors demonized Stewart as a traitor
condemning her for her "radical" political views which have
always embraced the letter and spirit of justice for all under the rule
of law. Still, prosecutors falsely accused her of making statements
that violence is sometimes justified to overthrow oppressive government
and that she advocated regime change in Egypt under President (and de
facto dictator and close US ally) Hosni Mubarak.
Also, a few days before the
verdict, prosecutors ignored the physical threat of the fascist Jewish
Defense Organization putting up flyers near the courthouse with Stewart's
home address calling for her to be driven out of the city. It was all
part of a government-orchestrated witch-hunt process inside and outside
the courtroom to use the Stewart case as an act of intimidation to scare
off other defense attorneys with the clear threat that they, too, will
become targets if they dare defend anyone charged with "terrorism"
(guilty or innocent) that prosecutors want to convict. Just after the
verdict, Georgetown University professor of law, author and civil rights
advocate David Cole said: "This (verdict) will have a chilling
effect on lawyers who might represent an unpopular client." National
Lawyers Guild President Michael Avery added: "The US Department
of Justice was resolute from day one in making a symbol out of Lynne
Stewart in support of its campaign to deny people charged with crimes
of effective legl representation." Avery courageously urged National
Lawyers Guild members to "proudly represent clients who are openly
critical of government policies (and added) We will also continue to
stand by Lynne Stewart."
October 17 was Stewart's
date to be sentenced. The Justice Department hoped it would get the
harsh 30 years it asked for to set the precedent it wanted. Judge John
G. Koeltl had other ideas and refused to comply. Instead, he vindicated
Stewart in the sentence he gave her, effectively rebuking Justice Department
prosecutors and handing them a major defeat. The government wanted the
67-year-old Stewart put away for what would have been a life or even
a death sentence. Her cancer is in remission, but she still remains
in fragile health following her illness and major surgery. Judge Koeltl
took everything into account and sentenced her to 28 months, allowing
her to remain free pending her appeal to a higher court which he acknowledged
might overturn the case that he clearly implied was a gross miscarriage
of justice for a woman of such noble stature in her long career fighting
for justice.
The judge noted her past
in issuing sentence saying: "She has represented the poor, the
disadvantaged and the unpopular (and she had) enormous skill and dedication
(earning little money for doing it). It is no exaggeration to say that
Ms. Stewart performed a public service not only to her clients but to
the nation." Judge Koeltl cited the many hundreds of letters of
support Stewart got from law professors, former prosecutors, retired
judges and former clients. One or more of them came from Ramsey Clark,
a man of such enormous stature and eminence himself, he can't be ignored.
Lynne Stewart left the courtroom
on October 17 a proud and vindicated woman who spent a lifetime advocating
for society's most disadvantaged. She now has a chance to overturn a
malicious and wrongful conviction that represents an appalling miscarriage
of justice.
She may even be able to regain
her license to practice law that she lost through disbarment after being
convincted. If she does, it will be a further stunning rebuke to a rogue
administration and a major victory for the rule of law. It will also
prove Lynne Stewart is only guilty of being a courageous advocate for
justice and those in society least able to achieve it. Everyone of conscience
supports her and hopes for the day she'll be fully exonerated and able
to resume the vital work she spent so many years doing admirably and
honorably and that so many of society's most disadvantaged need her
for.
Stephen Lendman
lives in Chicago lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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