{"id":9124,"date":"2013-08-07T15:12:35","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T19:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=9124"},"modified":"2013-08-10T14:00:55","modified_gmt":"2013-08-10T18:00:55","slug":"free-lynne-stewart-save-her-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2013\/08\/free-lynne-stewart-save-her-life.html","title":{"rendered":"
Free Lynne Stewart: Save Her Life<\/center>"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATES BELOW …
\nBack in 2005, when Lynne Stewart was prosecuted for aiding terrorists in her role as a civil rights defense attorney representing Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up the United Nations building in New York, it was clear the feds were aiming to fry her<\/a>. I wrote then:<\/p>\n

Americans less brave than Lynne Stewart — which, frankly, means the rest of us — are easily cowed. It doesn\u2019t take much to scare the shit out of people. As William Burroughs once wrote, \u201canyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death,\u201d and Dear Leader owns the biggest frying pan of all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Lynne<\/a>


Lynne Stewart<\/p><\/div> After she was sentenced to 28 months in prison, the feds appealed and her sentence was upped to 10 years. There is now a PETITION<\/a> making the rounds online asking the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to release her from incarceration \u201cfor extraordinary and compelling reasons\u201d — that is, to save her life. She has Stage Four breast cancer, which has spread to her lymph nodes, shoulder, bones, and lungs, and cannot get the medical treatment she needs at the federal prison in Carswell, Texas, where she is serving her sentence. <\/p>\n

According to the petition, “ready access to physicians and specialists under conditions compatible with medical success” is lacking. “It can take weeks to see a medical provider in prison conditions” and “weeks to report physical changes and learn the results of treatment.” Moreover, despite her weakened physical condition, Stewart’s “trips to physicians involve attempting to walk with 10 pounds of shackles on her wrists and ankles.” And “when held in the hospital,” she is “shackled wrist and ankle to the bed.” <\/p>\n

“This medieval ‘shackling’ has little to do with any appropriate prison control,” the petition points out. “She is obviously not an escape risk.” The petition also “demand[s] abolition of this practice for all prisoners, let alone those facing surgery and the urgent necessity of care and recovery. It amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of human rights.”<\/p>\n

Stewart’s friends and allies will hold a RALLY<\/a> to support the petition near the Federal Court Building in New York, at Foley Square, on Thursday (Aug, 8) from noon to 2 p.m. Here’s the legal memorandum<\/a> asking for her release: <\/p>\n

<\/a>


Memorandum of Law filed 7-29-13 in support of Lynne Stewart\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

CLICK TO READ THE FULL MEMORANDUM<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Postscript:<\/strong> Aug. 8 — In a letter to Judge Koeltl, Stewart wrote:<\/a> <\/p>\n

“I do not intend to go ‘gently into that good night’ as Dylan Thomas wrote. There is much to be done in this world. I do know that I do not want to die here in prison \u2014 a strange and loveless place. I want to be where all is familiar \u2014 in a word, home. … I have no grandiose plans \u2014 just good food, conversation, music. That is what I look forward to. And of course, my beloved husband Ralph \u2014 my hero and help, my heart, through all the last 50 years. I need him and his strength and love now to be close to me as I get ready for the nearing moments of transition and then rest. If you indeed represent the merciful hand of the law, as against, in this case, a heartless bureaucracy, do not punish me further. Grant me release and allow me to die in dignity.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n