[icffmaj] Lynne Stewart in Grave Danger! Compassionate Release Petition and Dick Gregory fast [1 Attachment]
[Attachment(s) from
[email protected] included below]
The petition can be found online at the Justice for Lynne Stewart website:
www.lynnestewart.org or at
www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-free-lynne-stewart-save-her-life-release-her-now-2
here is the text. Please go to these sites and sign it.
PETITION TO FREE LYNNE STEWART: SAVE HER LIFE – RELEASE HER NOW!
Lynne Stewart has devoted her life to the oppressed – a constant advocate for
the countless many deprived in the United States of their freedom and their
rights.
Unjustly charged and convicted for the “crime” of providing her client with a
fearless defense, the prosecution of Lynne Stewart is an assault upon the basic
freedoms of us all.
After years of post-conviction freedom, her bail was revoked arbitrarily and her
imprisonment ordered, precluding surgery she had scheduled in a major New York
hospital.
The sinister meaning of the relentless persecution of Lynne Stewart is
unmistakably clear. Given her age and precarious health, the ten-year sentence
she is serving is a virtual death sentence.
Since her imprisonment in the Federal Prison in Carswell, Texas her urgent need
for surgery was delayed 18 months – so long, that the operating physician
pronounced the condition as “the worst he had seen.”
Now, breast cancer, which had been in remission prior to her imprisonment, has
reached Stage Four. It has appeared in her lymph nodes, on her shoulder, in her
bones and her lungs.
Her daughter, a physician, has sounded the alarm: “Under the best of
circumstances, Lynne would be in a battle of the most serious consequences with
dangerous odds. With cancer and cancer treatment, the complications can be as
debilitating and as dangerous as the cancer itself.”
In her current setting, where trips to physicians involve attempting to walk
with 10 pounds of shackles on her wrists and ankles, with connecting chains,
Lynne Stewart has lacked ready access to physicians and specialists under
conditions compatible with medical success.
It can take weeks to see a medical provider in prison conditions. It can take
weeks to report physical changes and learn the results of treatment; and when
held in the hospital, Lynne has been shackled wrist and ankle to the bed.
This medieval “shackling” has little to do with any appropriate prison control.
She is obviously not an escape risk.
We demand abolition of this practice for all prisoners, let alone those facing
surgery and the urgent necessity of care and recovery.
It amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of human rights.
There is immediate remedy available for Lynne Stewart. Under the 1984 Sentencing
Act, after a prisoner request, the Bureau of Prisons can file a motion with the
Court to reduce sentences “for extraordinary and compelling reasons.” Life
threatening illness is foremost among these and Lynne Stewart meets every
rational and humane criterion for compassionate release.
To misconstrue the gravamen of this compassionate release by conditioning such
upon being at death’s door – released, if at all, solely to die – is a cruel
mockery converting a prison sentence, wholly undeserved, into a death sentence.
The New York Times, in an editorial (2/12), has excoriated the Bureau of Prisons
for their restrictive crippling of this program. In a 20-year period, the Bureau
released a scant 492 persons – an average of 24 a year out of a population that
exceeds 220,000.
We cry out against the bureaucratic murder of Lynne Stewart.
We demand Lynne Stewart’s immediate release to receive urgent medical care in a
supportive environment indispensable to the prospect of her survival and call
upon the Bureau of Prisons to act immediately.
If Lynne’s original sentence of 28 months had not been unreasonably, punitively
increased to 10 years, she would be home now — where her medical care would be
by her choice and where those who love her best would care for her. Her
isolation from this loving care would end.
Prevent this cruelty to Lynne Stewart whose lifelong commitment to justice is
now a struggle for her life.
Free Lynne Stewart Now!
Ralph Poynter and Family
Press Release Contact: Ralph Schoenman, 707.552.9992
Lil Gregory, 508.746.7427
DICK GREGORY TO FAST UNTIL IMPRISONED ATTORNEY LYNNE STEWART IS FREED
Dick Gregory issued a declaration today, on the anniversary of the assassination
of Martin Luther King, Jr., that “I shall refuse all solid food until Lynne
Stewart is freed and receives medical treatment in the care of her family and
with physicians of her choice without which she will die.”
The 73-year-old Stewart, a renowned criminal defense attorney, is suffering from
Stage 4 cancer. Gregory, known for his social activism as much as his for
comedic wit and political commentary, has taken this step to reinforce the
worldwide petition in support of Stewart’s application for compassionate
release. Over 6,000 people, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pete Seeger,
have signed to date with the numbers growing by the minute.
As a criminal defense lawyer for over 30 years, Lynne Stewart defended the poor,
the disadvantaged and those targeted by the police and the State. Such has been
her reputation that judges assigned her routinely to act for defendants whom no
attorney was willing to represent. One of these was the blind Egyptian cleric
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who Stewart represented with co-counsels former
Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Abdeen Jabara.
In 2002, Lynne Stewart was targeted by then-President George Bush and Attorney
General John Ashcroft for providing a vigorous defense of her client. She was
charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist activity
after she exercised both her and her client’s first amendment rights by
presenting a press release to a Reuters journalist.
In 2006, while the Department of Justice demanded a 30-year sentence, Judge John
Koetl, handed down a 28-month sentence noting: “By providing a criminal defense
to the poor, the disadvantaged and unpopular over three decades, it is no
exaggeration to say that Ms. Stewart performed a public service not only to her
clients but to the nation.”
That sentence, however, was not to stand as the Second Circuit Appellate Court,
withdrew Lynne Stewart’s bail — even though her case is still before the courts
— and remanded the case back to Judge Koetl with the harsh demand that he
revisit his sentence and issue a severely enhanced one. On July 15, 2010, Judge
Koeltl increased Stewart’s sentence from 28 months to 10 years imprisonment.
This has become a virtual death sentence for Lynne Stewart.
As Gregory so eloquently states: “The reason for the prosecution and
persecution of Lynne Stewart is evident to us all. It was designed to intimidate
the entire legal community so that few would dare to defend political clients
whom the State demonizes and none would provide a vigorous defense. It also was
designed to narrow the meaning of our cherished first amendment right to free
speech, which the people of this country struggled to have added to the
Constitution as the Bill of Rights.”
###
DECLARATION BY DICK GREGORY — APRIL 4, 2013
I hereby declare on this day commemorating the life and sacrifice of my friend
and brother in struggle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that in the spirit of his
moral legacy, I demand the immediate release from prison of the legendary lawyer
Lynne Stewart, who devoted her entire professional life to the poor, the
oppressed and those targeted by the police and a vindictive State.
I further declare that from this day forth, I shall refuse all solid food until
Lynne Stewart is freed and receives medical treatment in the care of her family
and with physicians of her choice without which she will die.
There is no time to lose as cancer, which had been in remission, has
metastasized since her imprisonment. It has spread to her lymph nodes, her
shoulder and appears in her bones and in her lungs.
A criminal defense attorney in New York for over 30 years, Lynne Stewart’s
unwavering dedication as a selfless advocate was acknowledged by the community
as well as judges, prosecutors and the entire legal profession. Such has been
her reputation as a fearless lawyer, ready to challenge those in power, that
judges assigned her routinely to act for defendants whom no attorney was willing
to represent.
In 2002, Lynne Stewart was targeted by then-President George Bush and Attorney
General John Ashcroft for providing a vigorous defense of her client, the blind
Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. She was charged with conspiracy to
provide material support to a terrorist activity after she exercised both her
and her client’s first amendment rights by presenting a press release to a
Reuters journalist. She did nothing more than other attorneys, such as her
co-counsel former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, have done on behalf of their
clients.
The reason for the prosecution and persecution of Lynne Stewart is evident to us
all. It was designed to intimidate the entire legal community so that few would
dare to defend political clients whom the State demonizes and none would provide
a vigorous defense. It also was designed to narrow the meaning of our cherished
first amendment right to free speech, which the people of this country struggled
to have added to the Constitution as the Bill of Rights.
The prosecution and imprisonment of Lynne Stewart is an ominous threat to the
freedom, rights and dignity of each and every American. It is the agenda of a
police state.
I ask you to join with me to demand freedom for Lynne Stewart. An international
campaign has been launched with a petition that supports her application for
compassionate release. Under the 1984 Sentencing Act, the Bureau of Prisons can
file a motion with the Court to reduce sentences “for extraordinary and
compelling reasons.” Life threatening illness is foremost among these and Lynne
Stewart meets every rational and humane criterion for compassionate release.
Join with me, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pete Seeger and 6,000 other people of
conscience throughout the world who have signed this petition to compel the
Warden of the Federal Medical Center, Carswell and the Director of the Bureau of
Prisons to act. Act now. There is no time to lose.
The petition (above) can be found online at the Justice for Lynne Stewart
website: www.lynnestewart.org or at
www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-free-lynne-stewart-save-her-life-release-her-now-2