For Lynne Stewart: FREEDOM!

Calling all friends of Lynne Stewart: Come to a critical meeting Thursday, July 8, 6-10 p.m., at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South in New York City to show your solidarity and hear speakers Ramsey Clark, Ward Churchill, Fred Hampton Jr., Ralph Shoenman and many more!

by Mumia Abu-Jamal

Lynne-Stewart-husband-Ralph-Poynter-lead-march, For Lynne Stewart: FREEDOM!, Abolition Now! Lynne Stewart, targeted by the Bush-era Justice Department for daring to forcefully advocate for her client, is in danger – and only immense popular support can save her.

She’s in danger not just of a recent cancer diagnosis, but of the cancerous decision of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to re-sentence her to a longer, harsher term than the trial court decided.

Stewart has had an exemplary career as a defense lawyer for the poor, the oppressed and those deemed unpopular by the establishment. It was in this context that she was targeted by the state and unjustly convicted of providing material support to an alleged terrorist conspiracy, for speaking out on behalf of her client, the blind Egyptian cleric.

The late William Kunstler, a radical lawyer who represented similar clients, said that defense attorneys should be “officers of their clients” instead of “officers of the court.”*

Lynne Stewart was, like Kunstler, an “officer of [her] client,” which is another reason she was targeted.

She violated what was essentially a prison regulation (called a SAM – for Special Administrative Measure), one that she probably rightly thought couldn’t possibly supersede her constitutional and professional duty to defend her client. But she underestimated the base opportunism of government and the subservience of the courts, even at the costs of constitutional rights and alleged “guarantees.”

On the evening of Thursday, July 8, at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South in New York City, friends, admirers and supporters of Lynne Stewart will gather together to express their solidarity with an extraordinary woman, a gifted lawyer and a person convicted for her political ideas and affiliations.

Show your love!

*Source: Kunstler, William M., “The Emerging Police State” (Melbourne/New York: Ocean Press, 2004), p. 41

© Copyright 2010 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia’s new book, “Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A.,” available from City Lights Publishing, www.citylights.com or (415) 362-8193. Keep updated at www.freemumia.com. For Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org. For recent interviews with Mumia, visit www.blockreportradio.com. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries and interviews. Send our brotha some love and light at: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370.