Second Circuit arguments in Lynne’s case will take place on February 29, 2012.

From Lynne:

“So we finally got a date for oral argument in the Circuit. The date is February 29–Leap year day and Sadie Hawkins Day…Anyway that is our auspicious day . I like it for its quirkiness.

I will NOT be there but that I hope a massive turnout will make up for my absence.”

More information soon.

Interview with Lynne Stewart
By Patricia Vickers, Human Rights Coalition

The Political Prisoner, Lynne Stewart, was interviewed by mail by Patricia Vickers, a founding member of the Human Rights Coalition (HRC) of Pennsylvania. Ms. Vickers is the co-founder/editor of The Movement magazine of the HRC. A former 1960s student activist, Ms. Vickers is an eco-feminist whose youngest son, Kerry ‘Shakaboona’ Marshall, is a wrongly convicted juvenile serving Life Imprisonment as a Juvenile Lifer in Pennsylvania prisons and, though incarcerated for 25 years, is a political activist.

Human Rights Coalition: Hello. Welcome to THE MOVEMENT Sister Lynne. Thank you for granting me this interview with you. How are your health and spirits, and how are you being treated at FMC Carswell [Federal Prison]?

Lynne Stewart: My health is passable—the usual brushfires of aging, but good. My spirits are always high, especially with the mail I get to encourage me. I am being treated as well as can be expected. I receive heavy scrutiny—all mail, email and phone conversations.

Human Rights Coalition: There are people who aren’t aware of your unlawful confinement and the government’s repression of you for your legal representation of the Muslim blind Sheik. Can you enlighten the people about your situation?

Lynne Stewart: There are two aspects to my “situation,” as you so gallantly described it. First, I was prosecuted for doing what I believe is the duty and work of an attorney—to represent the client zealously and conscientiously. In the case of the original trial (1995) of the blind Sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman, of Egypt, we wanted to keep his name alive so that we could eventually try to negotiate a return for him even if it meant jail in Egypt. In that spirit I made a press release public, and to Reuters, expressing his point of view on a unilateral cease fire then in effect in Egypt. I believed that this was part of salvaging him from the torture of his solitary confinement and also that it was part of the work I had sworn to do. I was tried and found guilty for materially aiding “terrorism.”

Then, after I received a sentence of two-and-one-half-years, as opposed to the 30 years the government wanted, on appeal, the Second Circuit Court sent the case back for the Judge to give me more time. Without much ado, he sentenced me then to ten years, partially based upon on statements I made after the sentencing and before I surrendered in November 2009. That sentencing is currently on appeal and will be argued in the fall in New York City.

Human Rights Coalition: In the people’s eyes, mine included for sure, you are our [s]hero and represent a long line of principled and committed warriors of the struggle. How do you take being a Political Prisoner of the American government?

Lynne Stewart: I believe I am one of an historical progression that maintains the struggle to change the perverted political landscape that is the U.S. It seems that being a political prisoner must be used as a means of focusing people’s attention on the continuing atrocities around them. Nothing seems to be too shocking or corrupt to blast the complacency. Like my client Richard Williams used to say, I might think I hadn’t been doing my utmost if they didn’t believe I was dangerous enough to be locked up! Read the rest of this entry »

Lynne wanted folks to read this:

Tim’s official statement at his sentencing hearing

Tim DeChristopher addressed the court and the judge today. This is what he said:

Thank you for the opportunity to speak before the court.  When I first met Mr. Manross, the sentencing officer who prepared the pre-sentence report, he explained that it was essentially his job to “get to know me.”  He said he had to get to know who I really was and why I did what I did in order to decide what kind of sentence was appropriate.  I was struck by the fact that he was the first person in this courthouse to call me by my first name, or even really look me in the eye.  I appreciate this opportunity to speak openly to you for the first time.  I’m not here asking for your mercy, but I am here asking that you know me.

Mr. Huber has leveled a lot of character attacks at me, many of which are contrary to Mr. Manross’s report.  While reading Mr Huber’s critiques of my character and my integrity, as well as his assumptions about my motivations, I was reminded that Mr Huber and I have never had a conversation. Over the two and half years of this prosecution, he has never asked my any of the questions that he makes assumptions about in the government’s report.  Apparently, Mr. Huber has never considered it his job to get to know me, and yet he is quite willing to disregard the opinions of the one person who does see that as his job. Read the rest of this entry »

DIRECT FROM CARSWELL: LYNNE STEWART SAYS SAVE A LIFE !!!
SUPPORT CLEMENCY FOR PAT CLARK !!!

FROM PAT: Salient Facts re- Pat Clarke inmate at FMC Carswell:

To supplement my previous request for clemency (filed 2010) – These are what I consider to be the most important reasons why I am deserving of clemency:

1. I have been in federal prison for 19 years–half of my life, and today I am a completely changed and mature woman. I have worked hard to accomplish this and I believe, with the help of God, I will continue to grow in the outside world and become a contributing and thoughtful human being.
2. I am the victim of an incurable racially tied disease—Sickle Cell Anemia.  I am subject to painful attacks and have worked through them and am determined to continue to do so. This disease will continue and worsen for the rest of my life.
3. My problems started before the age of 10 when I was repeatedly sexually assaulted by my stepfather.  My mother chose not to believe me and I found myself caught like  rat in a trap with nowhere and no one to turn to.  My only refuge became my two brothers who offered to let me stay with them so they could protect me.  After a few years, as I grew up,  I became a worker in their drug business. I made some trips as a Mule and on one occasion,also got rid of evidence.  I was denoted a “Minor Participant”  in my pre sentence report, which I believe is accurate. I never was part of the “business”. I did not plan or share profits, hire and fire or was never part of any “enforcement” . During the time I was working with them, I was aged 15 to 19. I had never been arrested before, nonetheless I received the draconian sentences of  5 life sentences in Prison.
4. After my arrest, I co-operated fully with the Government but never received any credit for it.  I was plagued by poor to outrageous  lawyering throughout my case.  At age 19 and with no family or friends to turn to I relied absolutely on my attorney.  __________________ Jones.  He was facing disbarment but never informed me of the potential conflict of interest inherent in his position.  He actually was disbarred shortly after my trial.  In any event, after I co-operated and the US Attorney had offered me a ten year sentence,  Mr. Jones, the lawyer, informed the Government that I had changed my mind and no longer wished to enter into such an agreement.  He told me that the Government would no longer accept my cooperation.  He also mentioned, in an unguarded moment, that he would make more money as a Criminal Justice Act appointed lawyer by doing the trial than taking a plea. The Court also never told me that being under investigation, my lawyer might not be acting in my behalf but rather on his own. He has disappeared.
5. My first lawyer sold me out and then abandoned me. He did little at trial and to the best of my recollection did not even argue the important issue of the forseeability of the trooper’s murder.  At Sentencing he never challenged the inaccuracies of the probation report.  He never prepared a postrial motion that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence.  His own interests were most important to him. On appeal, a church member sympathetic to my age and what had happened arranged for a Ms Schein to represent me on appeal.  I was so happy because I thought that finally someone would do me justice.  She wrote to me, discussed the case encouraged me and then failed to file a brief on my behalf! The 5 Circuit ordered the Federal Defender to represent me.  In a written opinion the Court missed an important part of my defense to the forseeablity issue and by the time I realized this, I was time barred from filing a writ.
6. The case the Government tried against me included a massive drug conspiracy, accessory after the fact, criminal behavior on an Interstate, and participating in the murder of a Florida State Trooper. In the wide breadth of this conspiracy, a man I never knew or ever heard of, who was working for my brothers was stopped on Interstate 10, in Florida, by  Trooper ###.  Upon investigation it was revealed that he had no license and the car was rented.  The company who rented it directed the Trooper to sieze the car.  He arrested the man and took the car in.  As he inventoried it, he opened the door to a microwave oven which contained an explosive and he was killed.  I was acquitted of this charge by the Jury who tried the case but still convicted of being part of the crime committed on the interstated.    I have been advised that this was an inconsistent verdict but that issue was never raised and I was sentenced as if I had been found guilty.  For all of the charges against me except where I confessed to acting as a mule on a drug shipment from the Bahamas,  were proven by vicarious liability.  The jury was charged with the disfavored Pinkerton theory that extends criminal liablity to the breaking point .Even so the Jury could not convict me of a murder based on the “forseeablility” of a bomb in the the microwave oven, as part of a cocaine conspiracy. I was sentenced on this charge nonetheless and it was one of the life sentences I received.
7. My brother, Hentley Morgan did testify at a trial and did 8 years in prison and resides in Jamaica.  My other brother, Michael Morgan, who was designated a Kingpin by the Government, did not testify and received a sentence of life imprisonment.
8. In the many years I have been in prison, I always tried to remain positive and believe that this injustice would one day be corrected.  I have rehabilitated myself with education (GED, and community college as well as numerous courses) I have consistently worked in the prison and later in Unicor.  I have not had any problems with my institutional behavior.

I have a plan if I am released to either rejoin my mother in CAlifornia or return to Florida.  I have job possibilites and offers in both places.  All that I need is a chance.  I have the courage to do this.

PLEASE :  WRITE A LETTER IN SUPPORT OF PAT CLARK:

ERIC HOLDER, US ATTORNEY GENERAL
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
and send a copy to
RONALD L. ROGERS, US Pardon Attorney:
Office of the Pardon Attorney
1425 New York Avenue, N.W.
Suite 11000
Washington, D.C. 20530

Lynne wanted everyone to read this letter to the editor from Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

To the Editor:
“Discord Grows on the Politics of Intervention” (front page, March 8th) describes the tactical and political risks of American intervention in Libya, but nowhere does it state that such an action would be illegal unless authorized by the United Nations Security Council. NATO intervention without such authority would likewise be illegal. The United  Nations Charter guarantees the territorial integrity of every state and mandates that force can be used only in self-defense or by a resolution of the Security Council.

Nor is there a widely recognized legal exception for so-called humanitarian intervention, and for good reason. Often such claims are a fig leaf for interventions in countries that are of strategic importance for oil or other reasons.

So, for example, there has been no rush to intervene in Ivory Coast, where hundreds have been killed in the continuing conflict. The difference: Ivory Coast, unlike Libya, is not a major exporter of oil.

Michael Ratner
President
Center for Constitutional Rights
New York, March 8, 2011

Click to read the PDF version.