August 9, 2013 at 12:03 P.M. I hope to see and review "Elyssium" this month. The usual harassing pop-ups suggest that I may find it difficult to sign-in again from my home Internet connection. If so, I will try to write from public computers in multiple locations in the city.
August 8, 2013 at 12:50 P.M. Lynne Stewart was featured on Democracy Now this morning, even as arguments are scheduled for later this afternoon in federal court in Manhattan. Many of us hope that compassionate release will be granted to Ms. Stewart.
Nick Bilton, "Big Leaps in Linking Computers and Brains," The New York Times, August 5, 2013, p. B4. (" ... scientists reported in the journal Science that they caused mice to remember receiving an electrical shock in one location, when in reality they were zapped in a completely different place. [Geographical place? Or place in the body?] The researchers weren't able to create entirely new thoughts, but they applied good and bad FEELINGS [Do mice have feelings?] to memories that already existed." Please compare "What is memory?" with "'Total Recall': A Movie Review." As written, this article is simply absurd. Experiments with conditioning human behavior using barbaric behaviorist methods have been common for some time: "Behaviorism is Evil" and "Psychological Torture in the American Legal System.")
Nathaniel Rich, "Amanda in Wonderland," The New York Review of Books, August 15, 2013, p. 20. (Ms. Amanda Knox experienced far less unpleasant events or treatment than many American female defendants and inmates, who do not generate media concern, probably because they are not attractive young white women from the Seattle suburbs. Lynne F. Stewart may be one such unfortunate woman. "The FBI Wants Assata Shakur.")
Benjamin Wieser, "Dying Lawyer Asks Judge to Free Her From Prison," The New York Times, August 6, 2013, p. A14. (Lynne Stewart is dying in prison even as she is denied humanitarian release after conviction for delivering a message from one of her clients to his family member, a message which may have been passed on to the client's supporters in Egypt. This was deemed sufficient for the government to hold Ms. Stewart in contempt of court for violating a gag order. The evident animosity directed against Ms. Stewart can only be political.)
AP, "NSA: Analysis Can Touch Millions of U.S. Phone Records," The New York Times, August 1, 2013, p. 3. (Millions of Americans' privacy rights will be violated in terms of phone calls intercepted and monitored Internet activity. I am one of those Americans. I have no idea why I am "monitored.")
Sue Epstein, "Metuchen: Man Indicted, Allegedly Scammed Sandy Victims," The Star Ledger, August 1, 2013, p. 17. (David Scott Ruddy, 32, may have scammed victims of "Frankenstorm Sandy," and he may be related to another man who stole from 9/11 victims: "That's Jersey for ya!" Christopher Christie said, allegedly.)
Bill Wichert, "Defense in Sex Assault Case Says Alleged Victim is Lying," The Star Ledger, August 1, 2013, p. 17. (A 12 year-old girl assaulted by a high school senior who is probably imitating the New Jersey politicians he sees on the news: "Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes.")
Anthony Campisi & Abbott Koloff, "20 Charged With Dealing Painkillers: Ring Allegedly Sold 1,000 Oxycodone Pills Per Week," The Record, August 2, 2013, p. A-1. (Generally, this level of operation enjoys police support in New Jersey, since protected drug dealers usually supply the courthouse needs for illicit drugs to judges, prosecutors, and others.)
John Brennan, "Developer Takes Control of Xanadu Site," The Record, August 2, 2013, p. A-1. ("Money for nothing and the chics for free!" Richard J. Codey said, allegedly.)
Joe Malinconico, "Council to Probe Torres' Payout: Panel Wants Details Behind $73,996," The Record, August 2, 2013, p. L-1. (Joey Torres, former Paterson Mayor, "got a little something for the kids" on his departure from office. Mr. Torres is returning to the practice of law in New Jersey. Ethics committee? Judiciary?)
Joe Malinconico, "School Chief's 2% Raise Voided: Staff Error Gave Him Cost-of-Living Increase," The Record, August 2, 2013, p. L-1. (Donnie Evans, who makes $219,500 on the books, may have instructed his staff to give him a cost-of-living increase "by mistake.")
It is not the task of a defense lawyer to be well-liked by the public. It is also not the calling of a person fighting a legal war on behalf of someone accused of a crime to be popular with adversaries, judges, or cops, who may have little appreciation of what he or she is doing, or why a lawyer must attack a system and government officials aligned against clients who are almost always at a great disadvantage against the state.
During recent decades -- more than ever in American history -- genuine defense lawyers have become an endangered species: threatened, attacked, subjected to criminal violations of their rights for insisting that government (like the rest of us) must abide by the law.
Defense lawyers are disappearing even as they are needed by more people than ever before. Advocates are being replaced by people who PRETEND to be defense lawyers, but whose true mission is to assist the state's prosecutors while giving the false impression to observers that legal proceedings are in compliance with due process requirements.
Make believe "defense counsel" usually comment on cases on morning television shows.
Guantanamo's hearings are a good example of what I regard as bogus legal proceedings.
The last line of defense for the Constitution and civil rights of all persons in our society is a strong criminal defense bar. Every society will be tempted to violate the rights of the most hateful criminals -- or of persons accused, often falsely -- of being monsters of depravity, typically in places like New Jersey, often by cops and prosecutors who may be worse offenders than these accused persons.
To violate the rights of the sinister-looking defendant seen after a night in jail on your evening news broadcast is, potentially, to violate your rights.
Defense counsel is not an amusing luxury provided by legal systems just to make things interesting and fun for all: A sound defense, government operating legally and with transparency -- never secretly, nor through lies or torture, drugging or hypnosis -- is a bulwark of liberty and is the essence of legality. ("Manifesto For the Unfinished American Revolution.")
Unimpeded defense counsel is an ingredient of legality, equal protection of the laws and due process that cannot be tampered with by the state, including the Office of Attorney Ethics (OAE). ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "New Jersey's Office of Attorney Ethics.")
Most of these hallowed jurisprudential guarantees and principles are a lie in today's American legal system. This reality should scare you -- especially if you are poor, a woman, or any African-American. ("The Verdict in Florida" and "Justice For Mumia Abu-Jamal" then "Abuse and Exploitation of Women in New Jersey.")
Lynne F. Stewart, Esq. -- I met her only once at the MCC in New York when I found her pleasant and sympathetic -- was one of the best defense lawyers in the federal system: aggressive, able, professional, and genuinely concerned for her clients.
Occasionally, Ms. Stewart had the effrontery to prevail against federal prosecutors, who deem such a horror (losing a trial) an affront to law and order, rather than the vindication of law and order.
In the aftermath of 9/11, in a climate of irrational hysteria against critics of the National Security State (NSS) -- which is the "carceral continuum" (Michel Foucault) in which we find ourselves trapped -- Ms. Stewart was prosecuted by a vengeful and resentful U.S. Attorney's Office seeking to even the score.
Ms. Stewart was in her sixties at the time of her prosecution. She is now in her early seventies, until recently she was assisting incarcerated women to earn their high school equivalence degrees, reviewing their cases, helping them deal with family issues.
Ms. Stewart's offense was to transmit a message from her client, Omar Abdul Rahman, to his family members, a message which the government believes was then passed along to this defendant's "associates" in Egypt in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy that remains unspecified. We just have to "trust" the government's position, as with the drone policy in Pakistan or NSA surveillance.
Ms. Stewart has always claimed that she had no knowledge of any further transmission of a "coded" message of any kind. She was apparently "monitored" (illegally) during private conversations with her client.
Ms. Stewart has never been accused of committing or contributing to the commission of a violent crime, theft, or been found dangerous herself. Like many defense lawyers, Ms. Stewart is often equated with her client and was treated as though she were an offender long before she was actually prosecuted.
Among current or former prosecutors in New Jersey known to engage in such tactics are Anne Rodgers, Jay Romano, and many others. ("Jay Romano and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "Larry Peterson Cleared by DNA.")
"Now 73 years old [sic.] and dying from cancer in a prison hospital in Texas, Ms. Stewart has asked a judge to vacate her sentence after the Federal Bureau of Prisons rejected her request for a 'compassionate release' under a program for terminally ill [sic.] inmates."
The issue at oral argument seems to have been whether a District Judge has statutory authority to alter the administrative denial of Ms. Stewart's request. The answer is "yes," if that denial was based on bias or violation of, say, privacy and First Amendment grounds. Punishment for opinions is unconstitutional.
The prosecution will argue that, to grant this request, will be to open the floodgates of litigation from dying inmates after every future denial. Clearly, someone in power detests Ms. Stewart and wishes to see her die in prison. This is the common fate of radicals in America.
To suggest that Lynne F. Stewart poses a threat to anyone or ever has posed such a threat is ludicrous. Worse, accompanying the continuing denials of her reasonable and ethical legal requests to die in peace among her loved-ones is the eager, delighted, and smarmy hypocrisy of prosecutors and officials relishing the suffering of a once-envied or admired colleague.
The ugliest glimpse of human nature is offered by insincere "colleagues" of an outstanding person in an extreme state whose pain makes their own mediocrity and slovenliness acceptable:
"Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor who was Ms. Stewart's adversary in the 1995 trial of Mr. Abdul Rahman, said that speaking generally, he had no problem with the idea that prisoners like Mr. Abdul Rahman" -- notice Ms. Stewart is equated with her former client -- "who were serving life sentences for heinous offenses should have to die in prison."
Asked to comment on his former colleague's plight, Mr. McCarthy once again blurred the boundaries between Ms. Stewart's much less serious, non-violent infraction (which probably should not have been prosecuted as a crime), and the alleged heinous crimes of Omar Abdul Rahman, including some offenses that were not charged to either of these defendants:
" ... 'We permit harsh sentences because people disposed to commit atrocious crimes would otherwise commit many more of them, killing and imperiling [sic.] innocent people,' Mr. McCarthy said. 'There is nothing lacking humanitarianism in that.' ..."
The slide into smears of the 73 year-old cancer-ridden woman dying in prison is effortless and smooth for Mr. McCarthy:
" ... As a very private citizen who was very fond of Lynn" -- hypocrites are always VERY sincere in their own minds -- "when we dealt with each other, I prefer to keep my thoughts to myself and my prayers for Lynne and her family.' ..."
Keep your prayers and alleged concern, which is very touching, Mr. McCarthy, and join in Ms. Stewart's application for compassionate release as a woman who, as you well know, poses no threat or danger to anyone and should not have been incarcerated in the first place.
