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.

Lynne Stewart Appeal Brief Filed

3/30/11; 9:45 am and 6:20 pm

Click here to read brief (PDF)

The Brief appealing the Draconian sentence of 120 months/10 years meted out to Lynne Stewart  by Judge John Koeltl in July 2010,after he was reprimanded by the judges of her panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, was served upon the Court and Government on 3/30/11.  The same panel (Judges Walker, Calabrese and  Simon) will hear this case in the fall of this year. Lynne had previously been convicted in 2005 along with two men of Egyptian origin, Ahmed Sattar,and Mohammed Yousry of material aid to terrorism based upon a public press release to Reuters from her client Dr. Abdel Rahman commenting on the long standing struggle in that country against the dictator/thief/torturer Hosni Mubarik.

The points made in the brief, are

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

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

III The Judge’s findings of Perjury and Misuse of her position as an Attorney on which he also based the increase, were error.

She asked for a reversal and remand.   Her team of Lawyers are Jill Shellow, 111 BRoadway, NY NY, Robert Boyle, 250 Broadway, NY NY and Herald Price Fahringer,   E. 56 Street, NY NY, of counsel.  Many  lawyers and other supporters also helped in the preparation of the document which can be read in its entirety on the website LynneStewart.org. Lynne, herself can be reached at Lynne Stewart, FMC Carswell, Box  27137, Fort Worth, Texas 76127.  Ralph Poynter, her husband and spokesperson can be reached at 917 853 9759.

The conference will take place on March 19th. Please see the flyer below.  Lynne is among those prisoners to be featured.

ALSO: How Wikileaks helped start a revolution – NO PROSECUTION OF WIKILEAKS

FREE NEW YORK ATTORNEY LYNNE STEWART— Defender of the Egyptian people

Thursday, March 3, 6:00 pm

The people of Egypt are awakening to the call of freedom.  What about us?  Will we respond or hide in the shadows as mute accomplices of tyranny?  What about the people of Israel?  Will they continue to believe their freedom depends on the enslavement of others?  Now is not the time for war—but time for a great liberation of all peoples!

Join the Liberty Coalition in a series of events in which we have the opportunity to consolidate a new social/political movement in New York.   What does the Liberty Coalition mean?

* a political party independent of commercial interests or narrow ideologies

* a ‘social network’ uniting forces for freedom, justice and love

Community Dinner, $12 buffet

Ukrainian Restaurant, 2nd Ave. bet. 8th & 9th

Speaking Event, 7:30 pm—free to the public

speakers include:

Ayman El-Sawa, Egyptian/American activist and organizer

Ralph Poynter, defense investigator in 1995 trial of Sheik Abdel Rahman and husband of Lynne Stewart