The Intolerable Conviction of Lynne Stewart

<p id="issueinfo"><cite>Revolutionary Worker #1268</cite>, February 20, 2005, posted at rwor.org</p> <blockquote> <p>&quot;I see myself as being a symbol of what the people rail against when they say our civil liberties are eroded. This case could be, I hope it will be, a wakeup call to all of the citizens of this country and all of the people who live here that you can&#8217;t lock up the lawyers. You can&#8217;t tell the lawyers how to do their job. You&#8217;ve got to let them operate. And I will fight on. I am not giving up. I know I commited no crime. I know what I did was right.&quot;</p> <p class="quotesource">Attorney Lynne Stewart, after her Feb. 10 conviction on felony charges</p> </blockquote> <p>In April 2002, then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft personally announced to the news media that the government had indicted radical civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart on serious charges of &quot;conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and defrauding the U.S. government.&quot;</p> <!--break--> <p><br />  &lt;blockquote&gt;<br />    &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I see myself as being a symbol of what the people rail<br />    against when they say our civil liberties are eroded. This case<br />    could be, I hope it will be, a wakeup call to all of the citizens<br />    of this country and all of the people who live here that you<br />    can&amp;#8217;t lock up the lawyers. You can&amp;#8217;t tell the lawyers<br />    how to do their job. You&amp;#8217;ve got to let them operate. And I<br />    will fight on. I am not giving up. I know I commited no crime. I<br />    know what I did was right.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p  class=&quot;quotesource&quot;&gt;Attorney Lynne<br />  Stewart, after her Feb. 10 conviction on felony charges&lt;/p&gt;<br />  &lt;/blockquote&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;In April 2002, then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft personally<br />  announced to the news media that the government had indicted radical<br />  civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart on serious charges of<br />  &amp;quot;conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and<br />  defrauding the U.S. government.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;Almost three years later, on February 10, Ashcroft&amp;#8217;s<br />  successor&amp;#8212;Alberto Gonzales&amp;#8212;spoke to the national media to<br />  hail the conviction of Lynne Stewart on all five counts that she<br />  faced.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;The extraordinary attention focused on this case by Ashcroft and<br />  Gonzalez points to the stakes involved&amp;#8212;and the stakes are very<br />  high. The conviction of Lynne Stewart is &lt;em&gt;very bad&lt;/em&gt; &amp;#8212;for<br />  defense lawyers, for those who oppose this government, and for the<br />  people generally.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;The government set its sights on Stewart because of her determined<br />  work as a defense attorney for her client, fundamentalist Islamic<br />  cleric Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted and sentenced to life in<br />  1996 for seditious conspiracy related to alleged plots to attack New<br />  York landmarks. But as the National Lawyers Guild said after the<br />  verdict, this case was &amp;quot;an attack not only on our cherished<br />  colleague and fellow NLG member but also on all members of the legal<br />  community who represent unpopular clients and causes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;Defense attorney Ron Kuby said, &amp;quot;It&amp;#8217;s a dark day for<br />  civil liberties and for civil liberties lawyers in this country. In<br />  the post 9/11 era, where dissidents are treated as traitors,<br />  it&amp;#8217;s perhaps no surprise that a zealous civil rights lawyer<br />  becomes a convict.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;Carl Dix, national spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist<br />  Party, said: &amp;quot;Lynne Stewart&amp;#8217;s actual &amp;#8216;crime&amp;#8217;<br />  was aggressively defending a client who was on the wrong side of the<br />  U.S.&amp;#8217;s &amp;#8216;war on terrorism.&amp;#8217; Her conviction<br />  underlines the ugly reality the rulers are determined to<br />  create&amp;#8212;one where any opposition to their aims has been<br />  criminalized. This represents a dangerous legal precedent that must<br />  be opposed.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center&quot;&gt;****&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;The guilty verdict on Lynne Stewart came after a seven-month trial<br />  and 12 days of deliberation by the jury. The same jury also came out<br />  with guilty verdicts on all charges against Mohammed Yousry (a<br />  translator for Rahman) and Ahmed Abdel Sattar (a paralegal).&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;Stewart, who is 65 years old, faces a possible maximum sentence of<br />  45 years.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;The government alleged that Stewart helped to communicate a<br />  message from Rahman to his organization in Egypt, the Islamic<br />  Group&amp;#8212;by passing on a press release expressing his opposition<br />  to a ceasefire with the Egyptian regime. The government claims that<br />  this violated the &amp;quot;Special Administrative Measures&amp;quot; (SAMs)<br />  against Rahman. SAMs severely limit the ability of certain federal<br />  prisoners to communicate with the outside world.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt; noted, &amp;quot;The government never<br />  showed that any violence resulted from the defendants&amp;#8217; actions.<br />  The Islamic Group never canceled the ceasefire. The defendants were<br />  not accused of terrorism in the United States.&amp;quot; The judge<br />  himself told the jury that bin Laden and al-Qaida were not at issue.<br />  But the prosecution blatantly tried to pin a &amp;quot;terrorist&amp;quot;<br />  label on Stewart&amp;#8212;for example, by showing videotapes of Osama<br />  bin Laden in the courtroom.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;As Lynne Stewart pointed out, &amp;quot;If you mention Osama bin<br />  Laden&amp;#8217;s name, you don&amp;#8217;t have to present any evidence. You<br />  can tell the jury that he has nothing to do with the case, but<br />  there&amp;#8217;s been this discourse, this drumbeat, that makes it very<br />  difficult for our voice to be heard.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;Since 9/11, the Bush administration has been on a fascistic<br />  offensive against the rights of the people. Such things as the right<br />  to an attorney and attorney-client privilege that have been cosidered<br />  established principles of this legal system are being undercut and<br />  undermined. And the government&amp;#8217;s trial of Lynne Stewart is part<br />  of this reactionary offensive.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;The hundreds of exhibits presented by the prosecution in the trial<br />  consisted largely of secret government surveillance of Mohammed<br />  Sattar&amp;#8217;s communications&amp;#8212;&amp;quot;telephone calls, monitoring<br />  his Internet usage and his e- mail account and his fax machine.&amp;quot;<br />  This spying operation was then used as an excuse to extend the secret<br />  surveillance to Lynne Stewart&amp;#8217;s meetings with her client.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;There is an Orwellian quality to all this. One of the<br />  government&amp;#8217;s accusations against Stewart is that she tried to<br />  distract the guards so that others could communicate secretly with<br />  Rahman. How do they supposedly know this? Because, they say, they<br />  were &lt;em&gt;videotaping&lt;/em&gt; the meetings between Stewart and her<br />  client.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;In an article on the Counterpunch website, legal scholar Jennifer<br />  Van Bergen wrote, &amp;quot;The words she spoke to her client were meant<br />  for her client alone and the one who has violated rights here is the<br />  Department of Justice. They violated something so sacred that it can<br />  hardly be spoken without somehow losing the value of it: they<br />  violated the attorney/client privilege. The DOJ violated this<br />  privilege by listening in on her conversations with her client, which<br />  they then took out of context and tried to make into a monstrous<br />  thing. But is anyone prosecuting them for this violation?<br />  No.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;In response to the government charges that she violated the<br />  Special Administrative Measures against Rahman, Stewart has insisted<br />  that her obligations as a defense attorney were what she considered<br />  of primary importance.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;Stewart told the radio program &lt;em&gt;Democracy Now&lt;/em&gt; the day<br />  after her conviction: &amp;quot;We thought about this for a while before<br />  we made the press release [on Rahman&amp;#8217;s views on the ceasefire],<br />  and it was considered that it was important to him, considered<br />  important to our handling of the case, that this press release be<br />  made to keep him a figure on the world stage. If we had lost that, we<br />  would not have had any bargaining power, we would not be able to do<br />  anything that would move him from this really torturous situation in<br />  which he was being held&amp;#8212;a blind, sick man who did not speak any<br />  English. These prison regulations, these SAMs, said, you know,<br />  &amp;#8216;If you break these regulations, you may be cut off from your<br />  client.&amp;#8217; That was our greatest concern, that we would be cut<br />  off from the client. The idea of prosecution never entered our minds.<br />  But the fact of the matter is, even with what has happened, it was<br />  the right decision. You can&amp;#8217;t start saying, &amp;#8216;Well, maybe<br />  I will do this, but I won&amp;#8217;t do that.&amp;#8217; It has to be that,<br />  within the rules of ethics, what vigorously and zealously defending a<br />  client means. You carry through on it, and you do so<br />  wholeheartedly.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;Also on &lt;em&gt;Democracy Now&lt;/em&gt; , Stewart&amp;#8217;s attorney, Michael<br />  Tigar, pointed to further implications of such government<br />  restrictions on prisoner communications: &amp;quot;The only way that we<br />  will ever get to the bottom of the American concentration camp abuses<br />  at Gitmo [the U.S. military prison at Guant&amp;aacute;namo, Cuba] and<br />  Abu Ghraib is that if lawyers for these prisoners are permitted to<br />  tell their stories to the world. If the government can shut off that<br />  communication, which they have attempted to do over and over and over<br />  again, these activities will continue in secret&amp;#8212; blessed as<br />  they are by the highest officials of government in a country which<br />  has for the first time in its history given a cabinet job to a fellow<br />  [referring to Alberto Gonzales&amp;#8212;&lt;em&gt;RW&lt;/em&gt;] who says that the<br />  Geneva Convention is obsolete.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center&quot;&gt;****&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;Because of her conviction on felony charges, Lynne Stewart was<br />  immediately disbarred, or deprived of her status as an attorney. She<br />  told &lt;em&gt;Democracy Now&lt;/em&gt; , &amp;quot;That is my greatest sense of<br />  loss&amp;#8212;that I will be cut off from this profession that I love<br />  and that I feel I have served&amp;#8212;and I have served people who had<br />  no voice.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;The conviction of Lynne Stewart is sending reverberations through<br />  the entire legal community. Criminal defense lawyer Jed Stone said,<br />  &amp;quot;This verdict is a chilling attack on criminal defense lawyers.<br />  The government is telling us, &amp;#8216;Don&amp;#8217;t get involved in<br />  cases of people alleged to be terrorists. If you do, you will pay a<br />  heavy cost.&amp;#8217; Whatever you think of the individual or the<br />  allegations, just like everyone, these people need a defense lawyer,<br />  perhaps even more so. But the government doesn&amp;#8217;t want lawyers<br />  to handle those kinds of cases.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;In the face of this &amp;quot;chilling attack,&amp;quot; some are stepping<br />  back, even saying that Lynne Stewart may have &amp;quot;crossed the<br />  line.&amp;quot; Others are taking a principled stand of supporting<br />  Stewart and condemning the conviction.&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;Defense lawyer Stanley Cohen said, &amp;quot;I don&amp;#8217;t think that<br />  there&amp;#8217;s a political lawyer in this country who doesn&amp;#8217;t<br />  believe that the government has a plan to target the lawyers who do<br />  what we do and to silence us. If anything, it [Stewart&amp;#8217;s<br />  conviction] will make us more determined.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;A statement issued by the National Lawyers Guild on February 10<br />  quotes Guild President Michael Avery: &amp;quot;The U.S. Department of<br />  Justice was resolute from day one in making a symbol out of Lynne<br />  Stewart in support of its campaign to deny people charged with crimes<br />  of effective legal representation. The government is bent on<br />  intimidating attorneys from providing zealous representation to<br />  unpopular clients. The National Lawyers Guild strongly urges its own<br />  members and other defense lawyers to continue to proudly represent<br />  clients who are openly critical of government policies. We will not<br />  be intimidated and this prosecution has only strengthened our resolve<br />  to oppose the repressive attacks this government has made on the<br />  civil liberties of everyone in this country. We will also continue to<br />  stand by Lynne Stewart.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p><p>  &lt;p&gt;The National Lawyer&amp;#8217;s Guild has called for a National Day of<br />  Outrage in response to the Lynne Stewart verdict for Thursday,<br />  February 17.&lt;/p&gt;<br />  &lt;hr style=&quot;text-align: left&quot; width=&quot;60%&quot; /&gt;</p><p>    &lt;h4&gt;Online resources:&lt;/h4&gt;<br />&lt;ul&gt;<br />    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.lynnestewart.org">lynnestewart.org</a">http://www.lynnestewart.org&quot;&gt;lynnestewart.org&lt;/a</a>&gt;<br />    (updates on the case)&lt;/li&gt;</p><p>    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.nlg.org">nlg.org</a">http://www.nlg.org&quot;&gt;nlg.org&lt;/a</a>&gt; (National Lawyers<br />    Guild website)&lt;/li&gt;</p><p>    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;../../s/elect.htm#stewart&quot;&gt;rwor.org&lt;/a&gt; (background<br />    on Lynne Stewart case)&lt;/li&gt;<br />&lt;/ul&gt;</p><p>  &lt;div class=&quot;footer&quot;&gt;<br />    &lt;hr class=&quot;footer&quot; /&gt;<br />    This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary<br />    Worker Online&lt;br /&gt;<br />    &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://rwor.org">http://rwor.org</a><br">http://rwor.org&quot;&gt;http://rwor.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br</a> /&gt;<br />    Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654&lt;br /&gt;<br />    Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497<br />  &lt;/div&gt;<br />&lt;/body&gt;<br />&lt;/html&gt;<br /></p>

<p id="issueinfo"><cite>Revolutionary Worker #1268</cite>, February<br /> 20, 2005, posted at rwor.org</p> <blockquote><p>"I see myself as being a symbol of what the people rail<br /> against when they say our civil liberties are eroded. This case<br /> could be, I hope it will be, a wakeup call to all of the citizens<br /> of this country and all of the people who live here that you<br /> can’t lock up the lawyers. You can’t tell the lawyers<br /> how to do their job. You’ve got to let them operate. And I<br /> will fight on. I am not giving up. I know I commited no crime. I<br /> know what I did was right."</p> <p class="quotesource">Attorney Lynne<br /> Stewart, after her Feb. 10 conviction on felony charges</p> </blockquote> <p>In April 2002, then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft personally<br /> announced to the news media that the government had indicted radical<br /> civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart on serious charges of<br /> "conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and<br /> defrauding the U.S. government."</p> <!--break--><p>  &lt;blockquote&gt;<br />    &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I see myself as being a symbol of what the people rail<br />    against when they say our civil liberties are eroded. This case<br />    could be, I hope it will be, a wakeup call to all of the citizens<br />    of this country and all of the people who live here that you<br />    can&amp;#8217;t lock up the lawyers. You can&amp;#8217;t tell the lawyers<br />    how to do their job. You&amp;#8217;ve got to let them operate. And I<br />    will fight on. I am not giving up. I know I commited no crime. I<br />    know what I did was right.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p  class="quotesource"&gt;Attorney Lynne<br />  Stewart, after her Feb. 10 conviction on felony charges&lt;/p&gt;<br />  &lt;/blockquote&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;In April 2002, then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft personally<br />  announced to the news media that the government had indicted radical<br />  civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart on serious charges of<br />  &amp;quot;conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and<br />  defrauding the U.S. government.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;Almost three years later, on February 10, Ashcroft&amp;#8217;s<br />  successor&amp;#8212;Alberto Gonzales&amp;#8212;spoke to the national media to<br />  hail the conviction of Lynne Stewart on all five counts that she<br />  faced.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;The extraordinary attention focused on this case by Ashcroft and<br />  Gonzalez points to the stakes involved&amp;#8212;and the stakes are very<br />  high. The conviction of Lynne Stewart is &lt;em&gt;very bad&lt;/em&gt; &amp;#8212;for<br />  defense lawyers, for those who oppose this government, and for the<br />  people generally.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;The government set its sights on Stewart because of her determined<br />  work as a defense attorney for her client, fundamentalist Islamic<br />  cleric Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted and sentenced to life in<br />  1996 for seditious conspiracy related to alleged plots to attack New<br />  York landmarks. But as the National Lawyers Guild said after the<br />  verdict, this case was &amp;quot;an attack not only on our cherished<br />  colleague and fellow NLG member but also on all members of the legal<br />  community who represent unpopular clients and causes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;Defense attorney Ron Kuby said, &amp;quot;It&amp;#8217;s a dark day for<br />  civil liberties and for civil liberties lawyers in this country. In<br />  the post 9/11 era, where dissidents are treated as traitors,<br />  it&amp;#8217;s perhaps no surprise that a zealous civil rights lawyer<br />  becomes a convict.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;Carl Dix, national spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist<br />  Party, said: &amp;quot;Lynne Stewart&amp;#8217;s actual &amp;#8216;crime&amp;#8217;<br />  was aggressively defending a client who was on the wrong side of the<br />  U.S.&amp;#8217;s &amp;#8216;war on terrorism.&amp;#8217; Her conviction<br />  underlines the ugly reality the rulers are determined to<br />  create&amp;#8212;one where any opposition to their aims has been<br />  criminalized. This represents a dangerous legal precedent that must<br />  be opposed.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p style="text-align: center"&gt;****&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;The guilty verdict on Lynne Stewart came after a seven-month trial<br />  and 12 days of deliberation by the jury. The same jury also came out<br />  with guilty verdicts on all charges against Mohammed Yousry (a<br />  translator for Rahman) and Ahmed Abdel Sattar (a paralegal).&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;Stewart, who is 65 years old, faces a possible maximum sentence of<br />  45 years.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;The government alleged that Stewart helped to communicate a<br />  message from Rahman to his organization in Egypt, the Islamic<br />  Group&amp;#8212;by passing on a press release expressing his opposition<br />  to a ceasefire with the Egyptian regime. The government claims that<br />  this violated the &amp;quot;Special Administrative Measures&amp;quot; (SAMs)<br />  against Rahman. SAMs severely limit the ability of certain federal<br />  prisoners to communicate with the outside world.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt; noted, &amp;quot;The government never<br />  showed that any violence resulted from the defendants&amp;#8217; actions.<br />  The Islamic Group never canceled the ceasefire. The defendants were<br />  not accused of terrorism in the United States.&amp;quot; The judge<br />  himself told the jury that bin Laden and al-Qaida were not at issue.<br />  But the prosecution blatantly tried to pin a &amp;quot;terrorist&amp;quot;<br />  label on Stewart&amp;#8212;for example, by showing videotapes of Osama<br />  bin Laden in the courtroom.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;As Lynne Stewart pointed out, &amp;quot;If you mention Osama bin<br />  Laden&amp;#8217;s name, you don&amp;#8217;t have to present any evidence. You<br />  can tell the jury that he has nothing to do with the case, but<br />  there&amp;#8217;s been this discourse, this drumbeat, that makes it very<br />  difficult for our voice to be heard.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;Since 9/11, the Bush administration has been on a fascistic<br />  offensive against the rights of the people. Such things as the right<br />  to an attorney and attorney-client privilege that have been cosidered<br />  established principles of this legal system are being undercut and<br />  undermined. And the government&amp;#8217;s trial of Lynne Stewart is part<br />  of this reactionary offensive.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;The hundreds of exhibits presented by the prosecution in the trial<br />  consisted largely of secret government surveillance of Mohammed<br />  Sattar&amp;#8217;s communications&amp;#8212;&amp;quot;telephone calls, monitoring<br />  his Internet usage and his e- mail account and his fax machine.&amp;quot;<br />  This spying operation was then used as an excuse to extend the secret<br />  surveillance to Lynne Stewart&amp;#8217;s meetings with her client.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;There is an Orwellian quality to all this. One of the<br />  government&amp;#8217;s accusations against Stewart is that she tried to<br />  distract the guards so that others could communicate secretly with<br />  Rahman. How do they supposedly know this? Because, they say, they<br />  were &lt;em&gt;videotaping&lt;/em&gt; the meetings between Stewart and her<br />  client.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;In an article on the Counterpunch website, legal scholar Jennifer<br />  Van Bergen wrote, &amp;quot;The words she spoke to her client were meant<br />  for her client alone and the one who has violated rights here is the<br />  Department of Justice. They violated something so sacred that it can<br />  hardly be spoken without somehow losing the value of it: they<br />  violated the attorney/client privilege. The DOJ violated this<br />  privilege by listening in on her conversations with her client, which<br />  they then took out of context and tried to make into a monstrous<br />  thing. But is anyone prosecuting them for this violation?<br />  No.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;In response to the government charges that she violated the<br />  Special Administrative Measures against Rahman, Stewart has insisted<br />  that her obligations as a defense attorney were what she considered<br />  of primary importance.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;Stewart told the radio program &lt;em&gt;Democracy Now&lt;/em&gt; the day<br />  after her conviction: &amp;quot;We thought about this for a while before<br />  we made the press release [on Rahman&amp;#8217;s views on the ceasefire],<br />  and it was considered that it was important to him, considered<br />  important to our handling of the case, that this press release be<br />  made to keep him a figure on the world stage. If we had lost that, we<br />  would not have had any bargaining power, we would not be able to do<br />  anything that would move him from this really torturous situation in<br />  which he was being held&amp;#8212;a blind, sick man who did not speak any<br />  English. These prison regulations, these SAMs, said, you know,<br />  &amp;#8216;If you break these regulations, you may be cut off from your<br />  client.&amp;#8217; That was our greatest concern, that we would be cut<br />  off from the client. The idea of prosecution never entered our minds.<br />  But the fact of the matter is, even with what has happened, it was<br />  the right decision. You can&amp;#8217;t start saying, &amp;#8216;Well, maybe<br />  I will do this, but I won&amp;#8217;t do that.&amp;#8217; It has to be that,<br />  within the rules of ethics, what vigorously and zealously defending a<br />  client means. You carry through on it, and you do so<br />  wholeheartedly.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;Also on &lt;em&gt;Democracy Now&lt;/em&gt; , Stewart&amp;#8217;s attorney, Michael<br />  Tigar, pointed to further implications of such government<br />  restrictions on prisoner communications: &amp;quot;The only way that we<br />  will ever get to the bottom of the American concentration camp abuses<br />  at Gitmo [the U.S. military prison at Guant&amp;aacute;namo, Cuba] and<br />  Abu Ghraib is that if lawyers for these prisoners are permitted to<br />  tell their stories to the world. If the government can shut off that<br />  communication, which they have attempted to do over and over and over<br />  again, these activities will continue in secret&amp;#8212; blessed as<br />  they are by the highest officials of government in a country which<br />  has for the first time in its history given a cabinet job to a fellow<br />  [referring to Alberto Gonzales&amp;#8212;&lt;em&gt;RW&lt;/em&gt;] who says that the<br />  Geneva Convention is obsolete.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p style="text-align: center"&gt;****&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;Because of her conviction on felony charges, Lynne Stewart was<br />  immediately disbarred, or deprived of her status as an attorney. She<br />  told &lt;em&gt;Democracy Now&lt;/em&gt; , &amp;quot;That is my greatest sense of<br />  loss&amp;#8212;that I will be cut off from this profession that I love<br />  and that I feel I have served&amp;#8212;and I have served people who had<br />  no voice.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;The conviction of Lynne Stewart is sending reverberations through<br />  the entire legal community. Criminal defense lawyer Jed Stone said,<br />  &amp;quot;This verdict is a chilling attack on criminal defense lawyers.<br />  The government is telling us, &amp;#8216;Don&amp;#8217;t get involved in<br />  cases of people alleged to be terrorists. If you do, you will pay a<br />  heavy cost.&amp;#8217; Whatever you think of the individual or the<br />  allegations, just like everyone, these people need a defense lawyer,<br />  perhaps even more so. But the government doesn&amp;#8217;t want lawyers<br />  to handle those kinds of cases.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;In the face of this &amp;quot;chilling attack,&amp;quot; some are stepping<br />  back, even saying that Lynne Stewart may have &amp;quot;crossed the<br />  line.&amp;quot; Others are taking a principled stand of supporting<br />  Stewart and condemning the conviction.&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;Defense lawyer Stanley Cohen said, &amp;quot;I don&amp;#8217;t think that<br />  there&amp;#8217;s a political lawyer in this country who doesn&amp;#8217;t<br />  believe that the government has a plan to target the lawyers who do<br />  what we do and to silence us. If anything, it [Stewart&amp;#8217;s<br />  conviction] will make us more determined.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;A statement issued by the National Lawyers Guild on February 10<br />  quotes Guild President Michael Avery: &amp;quot;The U.S. Department of<br />  Justice was resolute from day one in making a symbol out of Lynne<br />  Stewart in support of its campaign to deny people charged with crimes<br />  of effective legal representation. The government is bent on<br />  intimidating attorneys from providing zealous representation to<br />  unpopular clients. The National Lawyers Guild strongly urges its own<br />  members and other defense lawyers to continue to proudly represent<br />  clients who are openly critical of government policies. We will not<br />  be intimidated and this prosecution has only strengthened our resolve<br />  to oppose the repressive attacks this government has made on the<br />  civil liberties of everyone in this country. We will also continue to<br />  stand by Lynne Stewart.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;p&gt;The National Lawyer&amp;#8217;s Guild has called for a National Day of<br />  Outrage in response to the Lynne Stewart verdict for Thursday,<br />  February 17.&lt;/p&gt;<br />  &lt;hr style="text-align: left" width="60%" /&gt;</p> <p>    &lt;h4&gt;Online resources:&lt;/h4&gt;<br />&lt;ul&gt;<br />    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="<a href="http://www.lynnestewart.org">lynnestewart.org</a>"&gt;http://www.lynnestewart.org"&gt;lynnestewart.org&lt;/a&gt;<br />    (updates on the case)&lt;/li&gt;</p> <p>    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="<a href="http://www.nlg.org">nlg.org</a>"&gt;http://www.nlg.org"&gt;nlg.org&lt;/a&gt; (National Lawyers<br />    Guild website)&lt;/li&gt;</p> <p>    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="../../s/elect.htm#stewart"&gt;rwor.org&lt;/a&gt; (background<br />    on Lynne Stewart case)&lt;/li&gt;<br />&lt;/ul&gt;</p> <p>  &lt;div class="footer"&gt;<br />    &lt;hr class="footer" /&gt;<br />    This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary<br />    Worker Online&lt;br /&gt;<br />    &lt;a href="<a href="http://rwor.org">http://rwor.org</a><br /><a href="http://rwor.org&quot;&gt;http://rwor.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br">http://rwor.org"&gt;http://rwor.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br</a> /&gt;<br />    Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654&lt;br /&gt;<br />    Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497<br />  &lt;/div&gt;<br />&lt;/body&gt;<br />&lt;/html&gt;</p>

The Intolerable Conviction of Lynne Stewart http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/2355

The Intolerable Conviction of Lynne Stewart http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/2355