Bring Lynne Stewart home!

by the International Action Center

This week there have been enormous developments in the worldwide campaign to gain compassionate release for imprisoned people’s lawyer Lynne Stewart. The wheels are beginning to turn. We must redouble all efforts!

Please click here to sign or re-sign the petition for compassionate release for Lynne Stewart. Keep the pressure on!

Lynne-Stewart-Sign-the-Petition, Bring Lynne Stewart home!, Abolition Now! On Friday, April 26, the warden at FMC Carswell Federal Prison recommended that Lynne Stewart be granted compassionate release so that she can receive treatment for her metastasized Stage 4 breast cancer. The cancer has now spread to her lungs and back.

Gaining compassionate release for Lynne was thought to be impossible just weeks ago, when we helped to initiate this petition campaign with Lynne’s family. The warden’s recommendation is the first crucial step in gaining Lynne’s release so that she can get urgently needed care.

A week later we heard more news from Ralph Poynter, Lynne Stewart’s spouse. Federal probation officers in New York had visited members of Lynne’s family on May 3 to review the Brooklyn facilities where Lynne Stewart can live and be cared for while being treated at the family’s desired medical facility, the world-renowned Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

This review is another essential step. But there are several other steps before Lynne is home with us.

If ever there was a time to push forward, ALL TOGETHER, this is the moment.

The Petition for Compassionate Release must still go before the original sentencing judge, Judge John Koeltl, and elsewhere in the government bureaucracy.

The 12,000-plus signatures that you have already generated demanding compassionate release is the reason for this breakthrough. If there ever was a time to continue and/or join this fight, the time is now.

Ask all your friends and associates, all who have access to listserves, all organizations that can pass resolutions to take just a minute to sign NOW for Lynne.

Click here to sign or re-sign the petition.

Please be ON ALERT to pack the court in case Lynne suddenly has to appear in federal court in NYC in the coming days, when Judge Koeltl may make a final determination to decide this petition for compassionate release. We want to PACK THE COURTROOM and Foley Square to show our love and deep concern for Lynne. (The U.S. Court House is located 500 Pearl Street, just off Foley Square in Lower Manhattan.)

Now more than ever, first-rate medical care is critical to save Lynne’s life and to continue her battle for freedom.

Finally, please send donations payable to the LYNNE STEWART ORGANIZATION to: Lynne Stewart Organization, 1070 Dean St., Brooklyn, New York 11216. See www.LynneStewart.org for regular updates.

Learn more about the International Action Center at iacenter.org.

Stand for Lynne at these events

  • May 8, 4-7 p.m.: Rally at Times Square, Red Bleachers, W. 46th Street & W. 47th St. on Broadway, NYC
  • May 9, 7 p.m.: Rally at the Theater 80 Saint Marks, 80 Saint Marks Place, NYC
  • May 15, Noon-6 p.m.: Vigil at Foley Square, Centre Street between Worth and Pearl, NYC

Note from Lynne Stewart: Impact of numbers – diverse and impassioned

After experiencing a great happiness as I learned that our request for my compassionate release had been approved, I truly felt a resounding depth of joy when I read in the New York Times that the Bureau of Prisons’ inspector general recommended “More Releases of Ailing Prisoners” on May 2. Of course, my gratitude to the many people who signed on the petition and wrote is unbounded. BUT as a lifelong advocate, if my case can budge the bureaucracy to unfreeze the safety valve for the dangerously ill who are confined in these prisons without hope of release, that is a much greater victory to me and all of us.

Carswell is the only women’s prison hospital in the federal system and is replete with tragedy. While not going into detail, let me just say that there now seems to be a crack in the wall because of the reaction of all of you to the call to aid me in the hour of need. That answer is reverberating and may well serve not only me but countless others who are ill and not so fortunate as I. This is what I want as my legacy — to make it better for others who may not be able to rally as I was able to.

Written by Lynne Stewart on May 4, 2013. Write her back: Lynne Stewart, 53504-054, Federal Medical Center, Carswell, P.O. Box 27137, Ft. Worth, TX 76127.