[wvns] Lynne Stewart conviction affirmed & bail revoked

Circuit Upholds Lynne Stewart's Conviction and Revokes Her Bail
By Mark Hamblett
November 18, 2009
http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/PubArticleNY.jsp?id=1202435542989&font_colorredFree_Breaking_Newsfont_Circuit_Upholds_Lynne_Stewarts_Conviction_and_Revokes_Her_Bail&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

Disbarred defense attorney Lynne Stewart's bail was revoked this morning as a federal appeals court affirmed her conviction and criticized the short prison sentence she was ordered to serve for providing material support to a terror conspiracy.

A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said that Southern District Judge John G. Koeltl must take a second look at the sentence of two years and four months he meted out in 2006, a stretch that Ms. Stewart observed she could do "standing on her head." (NYLJ, Oct. 17, 2006)

Judges Robert D. Sack and Guido Calabresi were in the majority in United States v. Stewart, 06-5015-cr, holding that Judge Koeltl needed to revisit the weight he gave to mitigating factors that led him to give Ms. Stewart the sentence. The government had asked for 30 years.

See a timeline of the Stewart case.

Judge John M. Walker Jr. dissented, saying the majority did not go far enough and that he was "at a loss" for "any rationale that could reasonably justify a sentence of 28 months."

Ms. Stewart, 70, was convicted by a jury of helping imprisoned blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahmen communicate with his followers in the outlawed Islamic Group in Egypt (NYLJ, Feb. 14, 2005). She was tried along with interpreter Mohamed Yousry for a plot to pass messages from Sheikh Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for seditious conspiracy—a violation of Special Administrative Measures put in place to muzzle the sheikh and prevent him from signaling Islamic Group to abandon a cease-fire on terror attacks.

A third defendant, Ahmed Abdel Sattar, was convicted of the more serious crime of conspiracy to kill and kidnap people in another country.

The Second Circuit upheld all three convictions this morning and the sentences of Mr. Yousry and Mr. Sattar, but it was divided on the Stewart sentence.

Judge Robert Sack, who wrote the majority's 125-page opinion, said, "Because the district court declined to find whether Stewart committed perjury at trial, we cannot conclude that the mitigating factors found to support her sentence can reasonably bear the weight assigned to them."

He continued, "This is so particularly in light of the seriousness of her criminal conduct, her responsibilities as a member of the bar, and her role as counsel for Abdel Rahman."

Judge Walker said he would reverse regardless of the almost unlimited deference now given to judges at sentencing.

"Because Stewart's sentence is so out of line with the extreme seriousness of her criminal conduct (and, not surprisingly given the fact, with what the Guidelines recommend), notwithstanding the considerable deference due the district court at sentencing, I conclude that Stewart's sentence is not only procedurally unreasonable, but also substantively unreasonable and an abuse of discretion," Judge Walker said.

Having affirmed their convictions, the circuit directed Judge Koeltl to revoke the bail of Ms. Stewart and Mr. Yousry pending their appeals and to order them to surrender to the U.S. Marshal to begin serving their sentences.

@|Mark Hamblett can be reached at mhamblett@alm.com.

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