Prosecutors: Radical Hag Lynne Stewart Deserves Lengthier Sentence

I figure since they won't execute her then life in prison will suffice, especially since this terrorist-loving beast is most unrepentant.

Attorney Lynne Stewart, convicted of helping an extremist cleric pass messages from prison to terrorist followers, deserves an enhanced sentence because of statements she made after her conviction and sentencing, U.S. prosecutors said.

A federal appeals court in New York in November ruled that Stewart, 70 should be resentenced in a way that reflects the “seriousness” of her crime. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan, who originally sentenced Stewart to 28 months in prison and is presiding over the case, has scheduled her resentencing for July 15.

Stewart was convicted by a federal jury in New York in 2005 for helping her former client, the blind Egyptian sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, smuggle messages to followers in defiance of U.S. prison restrictions. Stewart, who was free pending appeal, was ordered to prison Nov. 19 and is currently being held at a federal jail in lower Manhattan.

“Stewart has made it clear that if given the opportunity to engage in the unlawful conduct for which she now stands convicted she would do it again,” federal prosecutors in the office of Preet Bharara said in court papers.

Stewart’s lawyers argued in court papers that the 28-month term imposed by Koeltl was “reasonable, just and satisfied the purposes of sentencing.”

“Ms. Stewart’s 28-month sentence is reasonable, especially when viewed alongside sentences in other terrorism prosecutions, including those where the defendants joined terrorist groups and clearly intended that harm would result from their actions,” wrote Stewart’s lawyers, Liz Fink and Jill Shellow.

Her lawyers said Koeltl, who presided over the nine-month trial, was in the best position to know the appropriate term to impose and that longer terms imposed in other terrorism cases cited by an appeals court judge were for crimes which occurred after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Defense lawyers argued she hadn’t committed perjury during the trial and that she didn’t know the true terrorist nature of followers of Rahman.

Fink wasn’t immediately available for comment yesterday and federal prosecutors declined to comment on the case.

Prosecutors said in court papers that Stewart deserves an “enhanced” sentence. While the U.S. didn’t ask for the 30-year prison term which they’d previously requested, they said they would make a recommendation at a later date about what kind of sentence would be “appropriate.”

The government said Stewart deserved a harsher term because was likely to continue breaking the law, citing statements Stewart made in interviews in the days after the appeals court’s decision.

“I’d like to think I would not do anything differently,” Stewart said in an interview with the Democracy Now Network on Nov. 18, prosecutors quoted her as saying. “I think it was necessary. I would do it again. I might handle it a little differently, but I would do it again.”

Her own words make the case for a long stay in prison. A permanent residence there will do.