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Lynne Stewart appeal raising lots of notable issues

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in press reports assembled here and here by How Appealing, there were "intense arguments Tuesday at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals" over the federal conviction and sentence of defense attorney Lynne Stewart.   This New York Law Journal piece provides many highlights:Defense attorney Joshua Dratel, trying to win a reversal of Stewart's 2005 conviction for providing material support to a terrorist conspiracy, claimed that Stewart's release of a statement by imprisoned Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman to his followers in the outlaw Islamic Group was protected by the First Amendment.  But Anthony Barkow, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York who was part of the government's team during the trial before Judge John Koeltl, told the panel that there was "abundantly overwhelming evidence" that Stewart and interpreter Mohamed Yousry "knew that what they were doing was wrong" when they passed messages between the Islamic Group and the sheik...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).