Legal News

Calabresi on Lynne Stewart Case: ?I?m Thinking Very Hard.?

By Ashby Jones

It sounds like it was good theater yesterday over at 40 Foley Square here in lower Manhattan. That’s where arguments in the appeal of convicted criminal defense lawyer Lynne Stewart were being heard by the Second Circuit. Here are stories from the New York Law Journal and the New York Sun on the “intense” debate.

Stewart (pictured) was convicted in 2005 for passing along a message from her client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for plotting to blow up several landmarks in New York City. Prison officials had required Stewart to refrain from carrying messages on his behalf. But in one instance, she called a reporter in Cairo to announce that Rahman was urging a terrorist organization to withdraw from a ceasefire with the government of Egypt.

At its essence, the issue confronting the panel yesterday was whether the First Amendment required overturning her conviction.

According to the Sun, the three-judge panel appeared “likely to ultimately uphold” the jury’s guilty verdict. But the arguments elicited some quality comments from judge (and Yale Law professor) Guido Calabresi. “This is a very hard case,” he said. “I’m thinking very hard.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).