Hawkins Urges Home Confinement, Not Life Imprisonment for Ailing Civil Rights Attorney, Lynne Stewart

Green Party of New York State
www.gpnys.org

Howie Hawkins for US Senate
www.hawkinsforsenate.org

July 12th, 2006

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Howie Hawkins, (315) 425-1019, hhawkins@igc.org
Sally Kim, (518) 364-2968, green_sallyk@yahoo.com

HAWKINS URGES HOME CONFINEMENT, NOT LIFE IMPRISONMENT, FOR AILING CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER, LYNNE STEWART 

NEW YORK -- "The Bush Administration is targeting lawyers representing controversial groups to discourage other lawyers from doing the same," says Hawkins. "A 30-year sentence behind bars for a 65-year old woman suffering from breast cancer is a life sentence."

NY: Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for US Senate, called today for Manhattan federal Judge John Koeltl to give civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart a sentence of home confinement with no time behind bars. Hawkins said that Stewart’s conviction ultimately should be overturned on appeal.

“Lynne Stewart’s conviction for her role as a defense attorney for Abdel Rahman’s is a continuation of the Bush administration’s efforts to suppress civil liberties in America using the 9/11 attacks as a pretext,” noted Hawkins. “It is part of an effort to revoke the American Constitution which we have witnessed with the detention of individuals without access to lawyers, the illegal confinement of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, and the attacks on Muslims leaders, such as Imam Umar and Dr. Rafil Dhafir here in New York. A long prison sentence for Ms. Stewart will have a chilling and disturbing effect on other lawyers, discouraging them from representing controversial clients or groups, particularly those targeted by the Bush  administration, out of fear of risking their own careers and freedom."

After deliberating for 13 days, a jury convicted Stewart on charges of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists, and defrauding the U.S. government. The 65- year-old attorney is suffering from breast cancer. The federal probation department is recommending a 30-year sentence for Stewart, meaning she would die in prison.

The National Lawyers Guild has faulted the prosecution of Ms. Stewart based upon violations of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. The Guild condemned the government's November 2003 federal superseding 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. 

Stewart testified that she did not support terrorism. Basing its case on illegal spying on Stewart's meetings with her client, however, the government made the claim that Stewart had abetted terrorism by releasing a statement from her client Abdel Rahman, who had been convicted for efforts to blow up five New York City buildings, including the bombing of the World Trade Center. The release stated that Rahman took no position in a dispute by the Islamic Group in Egypt in how to respond to efforts by the Egyptian government to kill them and their supporters. The prosecution presented thousands of pages of transcripts of phone calls, as well as videotapes of Stewart's meetings with Abdel Rahman, to tie Stewart to terrorism. Although Judge Koeltl informed the jury that the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Osama bin Laden were not part of the case, the court allowed the prosecution to present constant reminders of the World Trade Center disaster and of the government's "war on terrorism." The New York Times stated, "The government never showed that any violence ever resulted from any action by Ms. Stewart.”

Lynne Stewart has stated that "the Justice Department decided that things that I did as a lawyer are now to be outlawed, are now to be made into crimes, in order to deter other lawyers from vigorously defending people. What I basically did was, I issued a press release on behalf of my client. They said that this press release was materially aiding a terrorist organization, thus making it impossible for any first amendment right to be protected. And to me that is the real essence of this work, is that we be permitted to defend people in these cases as political people, not just as defendant 10872."

“Lynne Stewart has an exemplary life-long record of tireless and fearless legal advocacy for the oppressed. She has been a model for what being an attorney means. The problem here is not Ms. Stewart but a presidential administration which is intent on beating down anyone who dares challenges their effort to suppress the Constitution and rule of law,” added Hawkins.