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July 10, 2013

Supporters Rally to Oppose Denial of Compassionate Release to Lynne Stewart 
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Supporters of the jailed civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart rallied
outside a federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday to oppose the denial of
her compassionate release. A 73-year-old grandmother, Stewart is
fighting stage IV cancer that has metastasized, spreading to her lymph
nodes, shoulder, bones and lungs. Stewart is serving a 10-year sentence
in a federal prison near Fort Worth, Texas. In 2005, she was found
guilty of distributing press releases on behalf of her jailed client,
Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the "Blind Sheikh." The
Federal Bureau of Prisons rejected her transfer to a hospital last month
despite the recommendations of her prison warden. Stewart's husband,
Ralph Poynter, said her condition is getting worse by the day.

Ralph Poynter: "Lynne is getting sicker by the day. And when I went to
see her the 4th of July, I was afraid I wouldn't get a chance to visit
her because she's in quarantine. What's quarantine mean? That means her
white blood cell count is so low that it is dangerous for her to be in
population. So they (prison bureau) didn't stop her from visiting me,
but she's still not in population. They said she is self-sufficient. She
doesn't do anything for herself. She doesn't go to get her meals. She
doesn't clean. She doesn't make up her bed. And they say, 'Oh, she's
self-sufficient.' And yet, in the prison, she does nothing."

 

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