Court confirms 10-year sentence for Lynne Stewart

Scan page 2

5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to 55. Provide unemployment and retirement payments at We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and 6) To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that match­ 1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of the es the rises in comsumer prices. To combat high medical costs: A free, banks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be supervised by 7) Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers. No job discrimi­ 2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt payments, nation; equal pay for equal work — regardless of gender, sexual orienta­ and reduce mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused 8) Nationalize manufacturing, big agribusiness, energy, and transporta­ 3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works program tion corporations and place them under the control of elected committees to employ all jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality housing, efficient mass transportation, cheap and 9) To mobilize support for the demands it adopts, the EMERGENCY renewable sources of power, schools, clinics — and to conserve our water, CONGRESS should organize ACTION COMMITTEES in every workplace and neighborhood threatened by the crisis. These committees can draw up 4) Immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. troops and mercenaries from Iraq & Afghanistan! Close all U.S. bases abroad! No money for the military 10) To put all these measures into effect, we need a LABOR PARTY — — use funds instead for public works! Convert the war industries to mak­ based on a fighting union movement and all people who are oppressed Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.

Postmaster: Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610. RATES: For one year (12 issues, 1st-class mail): U.S., Canada, Mexico — $20. All other countries — $30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars.

Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Socialist Action is edited, designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor. It is printed by members of Local 583, Allied Printing Trades Council, San Francisco, Calif.

Clip and mail to: Socialist Action newspaper, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has confirmed the 2010 decision of Federal District Court Judge John Koeltl to change his 28-month jail sentence for radical attorney and human rights activist Lynne Stewart to 10 years. The court’s June 28 decision was not unexpected.

Following federal prosecutors’ appeal of what was widely considered a “lenient sentence,” the Second Circuit all but ordered a compliant Koeltl to re-sen­ tence Stewart, and harshly. Koeltl did just that, forc­ ing Stewart to appeal to the very court that originally pressured Koeltl, in what was widely considered a “ca­ reer decision,” to do Stewart great harm.

Stewart was convicted at an outrageous 2005 New York frame-up trial on five counts of conspiracy to aid and abet and provide material support to terrorism. Her crime? Representing the “blind Sheik,” the Egyp­ tian cleric, Omar Abdel Rachman, who has also been convicted on trumped-up conspiracy charges. Stewart issued a press release from her client stating his views on how Egyptian Muslim oppositionists should react to the ongoing crimes and murders of Egypt’s then President Hosni Mubarak.

Stewart was convicted of violating a vaguely worded court-ordered SAM (Special Administrative Measure) that barred her from revealing her client’s opinions. The penalty for such violations had traditionally been a mild slap on the wrist, perhaps a warning to not repeat the “violation” and to prohibit attorney-client visits for a few months. Stewart, barring an unlikely Supreme Court reversal, will now serve her 10-year sentence with perhaps a one-year or 10% reduction for “good behavior.” She is incarcerated at FMC Car­ swell in Fort Worth, Texas.

Koeltl’s original 28-month sentence statement, in the face of federal prosecutors’ demanding 30 years, not­ Editor: Michael Schreiber Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Name Address City State Phone E-mail Chang W. Lee ed that Stewart, known for representing the poor and oppressed for three decades with little financial remu­ neration, was a “credit to the legal profession.” Stewart served as lead counsel for her client along with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who testified on her behalf during the trial. Clark has issued similar press releases with no punishment. Indeed, an indig­ nant prosecutor during Stewart’s trail suggested that Clark also be charged with conspiracy, but his superi­ ors decided that imprisoning the nation’s former top attorney was not yet in their game plan, and the sug­ gestion was ignored.

The Second Circuit decision was based on allegations that Stewart had demonstrated insufficient deference to the original sentence. The court claimed that her statement to the media immediately following her sentence that “I can do 28 months standing on my head” had shown contempt for the legal system. I was standing next to Stewart at that moment and was saw nothing other than a great expression of relief that she (70 years old at the time) would not be sentenced in effect to death, based on the 30 years that federal prosecutors sought.

The Second Circuit also took umbrage at Stewart’s Zip • Ashland, Ore.: [email protected] • Boston: [email protected] (781) 630-0250 • Carrboro, N.C.: (919) 967-2866, [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860) 478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: [email protected]. www.thenorthernworker.blogspot.com • Florida: [email protected] • GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.: [email protected] • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • LOUISVILLE / LEXINGTON, KY.: [email protected], (502) 451-2193 • Madison, Wis.:

[email protected] • Mankato, Minn.:

[email protected] • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 802-1482, [email protected] courageous statement when she took the stand to make her closing remarks. Her attorney, Michael Ti­ ger, asked, referring to Stewart’s is­ suing the press release on her client’s behalf, “Lynne, if you had to do it all over again, would you do the same thing?” With a tear in her eye, Stewart stated, “I would hope that I would have the courage to do it again; I would do it again.” Stewart also insisted that her sworn duty to represent her client had to be weighed against the formalities of laws or court orders that prevented such diligent representation.

This refusal to bow to authority, to show the “re­ quired deference” to legal bullies with power outraged her persecutors, who sought vengeance in the rigged criminal “justice” system.

Stewart’s now rejected appeal argued three essential points:

1) In relying on Lynne Stewart’s public statements to enhance the original sentence of 28 months, her First Amendment rights were abridged.

2) The fourfold increase in the sentence was substan­ tively unreasonable and failed to balance her lifetime of contribution to the community and country with the criminal act of which she was convicted.

3) The judge’s findings of perjury and misuse of her position as an attorney, on which he also based the in­ crease, were in error.

“Free Lynne Stewart” must remain the rallying cry of all those who cherish civil liberties and democrat­ ic rights. Stewart, like so many others, but perhaps among the first tier, was a victim of the governmentpromoted malicious and murderous “war on terror,” aimed at stifling all dissent and imprisoning the in­ nocent to justify its wars against working people at home and against the oppressed and exploited across the globe.

Write Stewart at: Lynne Stewart 53504-054, FMC Carswell, P.O. Box 27137, Ft. Worth, TX. n Jeff Mackler is the West Coast Coordinator of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee.

• New York City: (212) 781-5157 • Philadelphia: [email protected] • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: [email protected] (401) 419-1706 • Salem, Ore.: [email protected] • San Francisco Bay Area:

P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, Ca 94610 (510) 268-9429, [email protected] • WASHINGTON, DC: [email protected], (202) 286-5493 National Office

----- pull-quotes -----

Subscribe to Socialist Action Get Socialist Action newspaper each month by 1st-class mail! — $10 for 6 months — $20 for 12 months ­— $37 for 2 years — I want to join the Socialist Action Newspaper Supporters Club.

A WORKERS’ ACTION PROGRAM TO FIGHT THE CRISIS take steps to implement the following demands — workers’ committees. decline in value. forests, farmland, and open space. ing products for people’s needs and to combat global warming. SOCIALIST ACTION Closing news date: July 7, 2012

I enclose an extra contribution of: — $100 — $200 — Other 2 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 2012

the level of union wages and benefits. universal, public health-care system. tion, skin color, or national origin. of workers.

more concrete demands than the ones outlined above. and exploited. For a workers’ government!

For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610, (510) 268- 9429, [email protected]. Socialist Action newspaper editorial offices: [email protected] Website: www.socialistaction.org WHERE TO FIND SOCIALIST ACTION

Socialist Action Canada

526 Roxton Road, Toronto, Ont. M6G 3R4, (416) 535-8779 www.socialistaction-canada. blogspot.com