The Lynne Stewart Guilty Verdict: Stretching the Definition of "Terrorism"

[struggle4progress]

To Its Limits
By ELAINE CASSEL

<snip> The eavesdropping on attorney-client communications that led to this prosecution .. has a serious cost in inhibiting defense attorney's ability to zealously represent their clients. This cost is of a constitutional dimension: The Sixth Amendment's right to counsel cannot be served while the government is a third party present at attorney-client meetings.

Another problematic aspect of the Stewart prosecution is how far the definition of support for terrorism was stretched. Stewart never provided any financial support, weaponry -- or any other concrete aid -- for any act of terrorism. No act of terrorism is alleged to have resulted from her actions.

Stewart's supposed support for terrorism instead consisted of aiding her client in 2000 by giving a press release to Reuters News Service in Cairo, Egypt, and of being present when her co-defendants allegedly aided her client in writing a series of letters.

Stewart was appointed by a federal court to represent Egyptian Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. Rahman was convicted of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism in New York City in the months after the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. But Stewart had nothing to do with that conspiracy. <snip>

<edit:> http://writ.news.findlaw.com/cassel/20050214.html

[enough]

1. Got a link?

Thanks.

[struggle4progress]

2. Doh! (/on Slap forehead! /off)

Link added to original mss

[RichGirl300]

3. Anybody else read her NY Post interview?

She was called "A Stooge for Terror!" It was a good article.

[enough]

4. This is an excellent article, explaining the issues more fully

than anything else I have seen about it. Well worth the read.

snip>

The Eavesdropping Regulation: How the Government Made Its Case

On October 31, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft, secretly amended the SAM regulations - without notice to the public. As amended, the regulations allow the Bureau of Prisons to conduct videotape and audiotape surveillance with respect to attorneys' communications with people in federal custody.

snip>

Now, however, the First and Sixth Amendments have been gutted--at least in terms of the attorney-client relationship. Indeed, as I argued in the first article I wrote about Stewart, the government seems to be conducting an all-out assault on the right to counsel.

Defense attorneys who represent alleged terrorists - or even detainees who are merely suspected of some connection to terrorism -- now know that the government may listen in on their attorney-client communications. They also know that this eavesdropping may give rise to evidence that may be used in their own prosecution for terrorism if they cross the imaginary line drawn by the government.

snip>

Hundreds of prisoners alleged to be terrorist combatants sit in cages and cells in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Every one, according to the Supreme Court, has the right to challenge his detention in federal court, through the ancient writ of habeas corpus.

What attorneys will risk their licenses --and life in prison --in order to protect their rights?

snip>



I hope somebody will add a second vote to put this thread on the "greatest" page.

[struggle4progress]

5. Their secret laws do comfort tyrants.

[IndianaGreen]

6. National Lawyers Guild Condemns Verdict in Lynne Stewart Trial

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--February 10, 2005

Contact: Michael Avery, President, 617-***-****

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CONDEMNS VERDICT IN LYNNE STEWART TRIAL

Urges Defense Attorneys to Continue Representing Unpopular Clients

New York. In response to today’s guilty verdict in the Lynne Stewart trial, the National Lawyers Guild condemns the message that the government is sending to defense lawyers who choose to represent unpopular clients. After deliberating for 13 days, a jury convicted veteran civil rights attorney Stewart, a member of the Guild, on charges of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and defrauding the U.S. government. Sentencing is scheduled for July 15. The 65-year-old attorney faces up to 20 years in prison. The jury also convicted Ahmed Abdel Sattar and Arabic interpreter Mohammed Yousry.

Speaking about the prosecution of Ms. Stewart, National Lawyers Guild President Michael Avery said, "The U.S. 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 legal representation. The government is bent on intimidating attorneys from providing zealous representation to unpopular clients. The National Lawyers Guild strongly urges its own members and other defense lawyers to continue to proudly represent clients who are openly critical of government policies. We will not be intimidated and this prosecution has only strengthened our resolve to oppose the repressive attacks this government has made on the civil liberties of everyone in this country. We will also continue to stand by Lynne Stewart.”

Since Lynne Stewart's April 2002 indictment, the National Lawyers Guild has assisted Lynne Stewart in launching a broad-based, national education campaign about the impact that her indictment would have on the Sixth Amendment right to an attorney. The government is hoping that lawyers will now think twice before representing clients with unpopular views or related to unpopular causes. Members of the Guild, through its nationwide network of chapters, have also faulted the prosecution of Ms. Stewart based upon violations of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The National Lawyers Guild condemned the government’s November 2003 federal superceding indictment as a continued attempt to undermine the attorney-client privilege by essentially reinstating the same charges that Judge John Koeltl dismissed as unconstitutionally vague four months earlier.

The National Lawyers Guild, founded in 1937, comprises over 6,000 members and activists in the service of the people. Its national office is headquartered in New York and it has chapters in nearly every state, as well as over 100 law school chapters. The Guild has a long history of representing individuals whom the government has deemed a threat to national security, including helping expose illegal FBI and CIA surveillance, infiltration and disruption tactics (COINTELPRO) that the U.S. Senate "Church Commission" hearings detailed in 1975-76 and that led to enactment of the Freedom of Information Act and other limitations on federal investigative power.

http://www.nlg.org/news/statements/LynneStewart0205.htm

[Liberty Belle]

7. Lynne Stewart Verdict: Stretching the Definition of Terrorism to New Limit

February 14, 2005

The Lynne Stewart Verdict
Stretching the Definition of "Terrorism" to New Limits

By ELAINE CASSEL

On February 10, after thirteen days of deliberations, a federal jury in New York City returned a guilty verdict in the case of 65-year-old attorney Lynne Stewart. The jury found Stewart guilty on five counts of defrauding the government, conspiracy, and providing support for terrorism.

Stewart will be sentenced on July 15. She may serve up to thirty years in prison. Appeals are expected to consume years. In the meantime, Stewart will lose her right to practice law and face hard prison time.

The eavesdropping on attorney-client communications that led to this prosecution would have been unimaginable before September 11. I will argue that this eavesdropping has a serious cost in inhibiting defense attorney's ability to zealously represent their clients. This cost is of a constitutional dimension: The Sixth Amendment's right to counsel cannot be served while the government is a third party present at attorney-client meetings.

Another problematic aspect of the Stewart prosecution is how far the definition of support for terrorism was stretched. Stewart never provided any financial support, weaponry -- or any other concrete aid -- for any act of terrorism. No act of terrorism is alleged to have resulted from her actions. Stewart's supposed support for terrorism instead consisted of aiding her client in 2000 by giving a press release to Reuters News Service in Cairo, Egypt, and of being present when her co-defendants allegedly aided her client in writing a series of letters…

http://www.counterpunch.org/

[magellan]

8. BushCo continues redefining the Constitution

You remember the Constitution...that quaint, historical document upon which this former republic was founded.

More on the witch hunt at Lynne Stewart's website.

Edited to fix the apostrophe in the link

[Liberty Belle]

13. The document Bush is going to let Diebold guard.

Really. I saw a story a while back that Diebold will be given the privilege of providing "protection" for the original Constutition documents.

Back to the story at hand, I find this extremely alarming. If lawyers are being jailed for years merely for trying to defend possibly innocent people, then there is no hope.

This story should be circulated widely. I posted late at night and don't think many people saw it. Keep discussion going so it will rise to the top, please!

[magellan]

16. Kick for Lynne Stewart and the Constitution!!

[magellan]

17. Another kick for the early-risers (nt)

[flordehinojos]

9. what a sick administration this bush administration is.

the entire administrations reason for being is based on lies, distortions, surveillance, eavesdropping, spying, fear mongering, appeal to the basest of human emotions, the reversal of the good samaritan parable ..... they are worse than the worst of the foulest cockroach.

[shraby]

10. What about the jury that convicted her?

Where are they coming from?

[flordehinojos]

11. they are probably coming from being feared mongered to.

AS b. j. sABRI said in his piece entitled "The Splendid Failure of Occupation-Part 27: Demystifying 9/11:

"the Bush administration mystified 9/11 and elevated it from a crime to an alibi for imperialist colonialism."...

and in this elevation of 9/11 to transform it into an excuse for ...
they have transformed it into an excuse against the 6th ammendment and the jury who convicted are poor souls who have been feared mongered to... the kind of people who buy bush propaganda about "rag heads", "mailmen and delivery people and repairmen etc. keeping an eye out on ...", "informing homeland security of ANYTHING OR ANYONE WHO LOOKS SUSPICIOUS..." the kind of people who believe that THERE WERE WMD in IRAQ, that SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS COMPLICIT (OR WHOLLY TO BLAME) in 9/11 ... the kind of people who hate ragheads and anything that is not right wing.

[freddyc]

12. debate

Debate and law, so last century.

[struggle4progress]

15. Who knows? They're anonymous. eom

[Liberty Belle]

14. Thanks. I just asked my hubby to post this on his legal forum

for trial lawyers to read. Maybe some of the conservative ones will actually wake up and smell the coffee.