National Lawyers Guild Condemns Verdict in Lynne Stewart Trial

[IndianaGreen]

Don't believe the propaganda crap that the MSM is spewing about Lynne!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--February 10, 2005

Contact: Michael Avery, President

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CONDEMNS VERDICT IN LYNNE STEWART TRIAL

Urges Defense Attorneys to Continue Representing Unpopular Clients

New York. In response to today’s guilty verdict in the Lynne Stewart trial, the National Lawyers Guild condemns the message that the government is sending to defense lawyers who choose to represent unpopular clients. After deliberating for 13 days, a jury convicted veteran civil rights attorney Stewart, a member of the Guild, on charges of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and defrauding the U.S. government. Sentencing is scheduled for July 15. The 65-year-old attorney faces up to 20 years in prison. The jury also convicted Ahmed Abdel Sattar and Arabic interpreter Mohammed Yousry.

Speaking about the prosecution of Ms. Stewart, National Lawyers Guild President Michael Avery said, "The U.S. Department of Justice was resolute from day one in making a symbol out of Lynne Stewart in support of its campaign to deny people charged with crimes of effective legal representation. The government is bent on intimidating attorneys from providing zealous representation to unpopular clients. The National Lawyers Guild strongly urges its own members and other defense lawyers to continue to proudly represent clients who are openly critical of government policies. We will not be intimidated and this prosecution has only strengthened our resolve to oppose the repressive attacks this government has made on the civil liberties of everyone in this country. We will also continue to stand by Lynne Stewart.”

Since Lynne Stewart's April 2002 indictment, the National Lawyers Guild has assisted Lynne Stewart in launching a broad-based, national education campaign about the impact that her indictment would have on the Sixth Amendment right to an attorney. The government is hoping that lawyers will now think twice before representing clients with unpopular views or related to unpopular causes. Members of the Guild, through its nationwide network of chapters, have also faulted the prosecution of Ms. Stewart based upon violations of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The National Lawyers Guild condemned the government’s November 2003 federal superceding 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.

The National Lawyers Guild, founded in 1937, comprises over 6,000 members and activists in the service of the people. Its national office is headquartered in New York and it has chapters in nearly every state, as well as over 100 law school chapters. The Guild has a long history of representing individuals whom the government has deemed a threat to national security, including helping expose illegal FBI and CIA surveillance, infiltration and disruption tactics (COINTELPRO) that the U.S. Senate "Church Commission" hearings detailed in 1975-76 and that led to enactment of the Freedom of Information Act and other limitations on federal investigative power.

http://www.nlg.org/news/statements/LynneStewart0205.htm

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[IndianaGreen]

3. Danes that sheltered the Jews during WWII also broke the law

From a fellow peace activist, I got this e-mail:

As one who has long known Lynne Stewart and some of the clients she has represented over the years, I find this guilty verdict unconscionable and totally outrageous. If you are unfamiliar with the case, please do some reading. Just Google "Lynne Stewart" and read the background of the case. This decision could have a serious chilling effect on many defense attorneys who previously would have considered representing political clients. The National Lawyers Guild is one of the few organizations that has been there -- for decades -- for clients charged with crimes of a political nature. I urge everyone on this list to support the NLG and Lynne Stewart.

In Peaceful Resistance, Cate

[Tinoire]

2. You'd have to be a dolt not to see what the right wing is doing

"It's a dark day for civil liberties and for civil liberties lawyers in this country," attorney Ron Kuby said on Thursday following the verdict in federal court in Manhattan. "In the post 9-11 era, where dissidents are treated as traitors, it's perhaps no surprise that a zealous civil rights lawyer becomes a convict."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--terrortrial0211feb10,0,6819464.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

[The Magistrate]

4. It Is, My Hoosier Friend, A Disgraceful Verdict

I do not expect any better from prosecutors, but the jury has badly let the country and themselves down by this finding. The only motive of the prosecution was to intimidate lawyers from taking briefs for, and mounting any effective of, persons charged with certain sorts of crime....

"Kill one, warn one hundred."

[IndianaGreen]

5. Not to mention the FBI taped attorney-client discussions

in violation of a long standing privilege. The only reason this case was ever prosecuted was due to the long animosity between Lynne Stewart and John Ashcroft. Seeing the torture-memo Attorney General Gonzales praise this verdict is a good clue that he is no better than his predecessor.

I guess this means that if any of us is arrested for demonstrating against the Emperor Bush, we cannot have confidence that our conversations with our attorneys are sacrosanct.