A federal judge shortened the sentence of "terror lawyer" Lynne Stewart. The Obama administration asked U.S. District Judge John Koeltl to release her on the grounds she will likely die in 18 months from breast cancer. She only served four years of a ten-year sentence.
A federal court convicted Ms. Stewart of acting as a courier for "The Blind Shiek", Omar Abdel-Rahman. She never expressed any remorse for her crimes as an appeals court stated she possessed "stark inability to understand the seriousness of her crimes." CNN reported at the time of her conviction:
The government's case against Stewart, Yousry and Sattar revolved around meetings in a Minnesota prison with Rahman in 2000 and 2001. After Rahman's conviction, Stewart visited him about three times a year.
Rahman was kept in solitary confinement and denied visitors, except for his lawyer and immediate family, who did not visit from overseas.
Stewart had signed an agreement with the Bureau of Prisons to abide by restrictions that prohibited disclosure of their conversations and distribution of messages from Rahman to third parties. But on at least one occasion, she appeared to flout those rules.
During the trial, prosecutors played surveillance tape of a two-day May 2000 visit by Stewart to show she provided cover for Yousry as he relayed Islamic Group messages to Rahman, including a Sattar letter seeking guidance on whether the group should continue a "cease-fire" of terrorist activities against Egypt's government.
Prosecutors said Stewart tried to distract prison guards to cover conversations between Yousry and Rahman.
Kingfish note: Keep in mind the government showed surveillance tapes to the jury.
9 comments:
How many times has someone been released from jail early because doctors said they only had a short time to live and then lived for years? Is there any reason why a person who is dieing can't stay in person and die? I know if it was me I would not get to come home and die. But since Obama was behind this, what does that tell you. He is a MUSLIM so of course he wants anyone helping his Muslim buddies to try to destroy us (if he doesn't do it first) out of jail. I am so sick of him and his buddies. When is he going to be run out of the country? He has had more vacations on the taxpayers since 2009 than I have had in my entire life time which is well over half a century.
C'mon, 1:58 p.m. You can come up with a better lie about the President other than the tired old slander that he's a secret Muslim. Aside from the fact that the President is a Christian who attends Christian church, don't you think we would have at least one photo of him bowing down on his knees in a mosque at some point in his life if he was a closet Muslim? And what about the multitude of Muslim terrorists he's ordered killed by our military, including Osama Bin Laden? Not very Muslim terrorist friendly if you ask me.
As a matter of fact, early releases for health reasons are not uncommon. But I'm guessing the first commenter is one who deals very little in facts.
Wouldn't it have been easier to just pardon the woman instead of issuing a request to a federal judge to let her out? Or were the president's handlers thinking that would call his credibility into question?
I don't know why there's a reaction to this piece.
Our prisons aren't equipped to deal with end stage cancer patients.
Nor is she likely to have the resources once back in the community to experience a comfortable end.
And, of course, every time someone writes that Obama is a Muslim or not a citizen, rational readers know that person is literally crazy or has an IQ in double digits.
um, no job, no insurance, no money...plus eatin up with cancer? just who in the hell is going to pick up her tab? Where ever that criminal lands the taxpayers there had better get out their checkbooks!
The taxpayers would have out their checkbooks for certain had she stayed in prison.
This way, maybe she'll be dead before the paperwork gets done.
Who cares? It ended up being a life sentence.
The bigger question is why is this local issue worthy of presidential attention and intervention? Or is it just another 'beer summit' precursor. He has a habit of inserting his foot at the oddest of times. But, there's nothing going otherwise worthy of his attention, is there?
Closer to home was a case in the Forrest courts some fifteen-years ago. Twin brothers Robert and Ronnie Turnage were falsely accused of fondling a thirteen-year old female of an employee of their jointly-owned business. The only evidence presented was the "victim's" claim that she was molested. The twins were charged with molestation, but only Ronnie stood trial. He was found guilty on the hearsay claim of the victim who stood up in court, pointing her finger at Ronnie. He was found guilty of molestation and was sentenced to 10 years without parole. Approximately six months prior to the end of his ten-year imprisonment, his twin brother, Robert, died. Ronnie was permited to attend his brother's funeral, accompanied by an armed prison guard. I talked with Ronnie at his brother's wake as the prison guard stood closely by, but did not know at the time that Ronnie was suffering from terminal brain cancer. He was refused release from prison to spend the few remaining months in the care of his mother and family members.
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