By MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
When Oct. 8 rolls around, people’s attorney Lynne Stewart will have reached her 74th year of life. That she reaches it behind bars in one of the most backward states of the Union (Texas) is a mark of both her extraordinary work as a lawyer, and of the weakness of our Movements.
For Lynne should never have been jailed for what is, essentially, a prison rule (the so-called SAMs: Special Administrative Measures)—an unconstitutional one, at that—and a trial that was based more on hysteria than fact. A New York jury, flashed film and photos of Osama bin Laden? Seriously? Who wouldn’t have been convicted?
But Lynne was targeted for her long and distinguished history as a lawyer of last resort: the unpopular the poor, the political and the downtrodden knew, from word on the street, that Lynne Stewart would take your case—and rumble.
The Establishment’s hatred of Stewart owes more to her successful defense of Larry Davis than the blind sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman. (Davis was engaged in a gun battle with NY cops, after resigning from years of selling drugs for them, and lived; and Lynne helped beat the attempted murder charges.)
For this she was targeted; for this she was tried; for this she was convicted; and for this, two years was quintupled into 10 years!
Lynne was convicted of treason to whiteness! The rest is pretext; law practiced as politics to sow the seeds of fear in other lawyers –lest they forget their place. Lynne should be free—only you can make it so!
Contact: lynnestewart.org, and fight for her who fought for you.
© 2013maj
Editor’s note: A tape of Mumia’s message was played at many of the rallies on Oct. 8 for Lynne all over the country. About 300 attended the rally in New York City, and 100 in San Francisco. Below is Lynne’s statement , which was also read at the rallies.
A Cri de Coeur from Lynne Stewart:
From Deep in the Belly of the Beast … that is, Texas.
Now another month has passed and I am getting increasingly irritable that these jokers are so cavalier with my life and what time I have left. (I also am getting weaker.)
My application for compassionate release is moving but glacially (Are there any glaciers left? Only in the bureaucracy…). We learned that the request has left the General Counsel’s office of the Bureau of Prisons in Washington and is now being considered by an “Independent Committee” (whatever that means). From there it will ostensibly go to the Director, Mr. Samuels, for the final recommendation and request for a motion to the Judge.
As you can appreciate there is still plenty of room for slips between cup and lip. I truly understand that I, with the strong and consistent support of all 30,000+ of you, do constitute a “threat” in their small universe. That is to say that, the will of the People cannot be ignored forever. With that in mind, I want to urge everyone to come on out on Oct. 8, Tuesday, my 74th birthday, for a local show of our collective will in opposition to the “death penalty.”
ORGANIZE • ORGANIZE • ORGANIZE • ORGANIZE • ORGANIZE
YOU AND YOUR COMRADES, FRIENDS, ACQUAINTANCES CAN GATHER AT YOUR LOCAL FEDERAL (U.S.) COURTHOUSE OR POST OFFICE TO REMIND THEM THAT WE WILL NOT LET ME DIE IN A JAIL CELL!!!
If you can do this please notify Ralph of your location by sending an email to my web site. We hope this will be nationwide and we can spread the word of the senseless cruelty in the way the Bureau of Prisons administers a program that is supposed to be compassionate. I may be the “poster child” but this is done on behalf of all the prisoners who are languishing, in pain or worse, trying to go home.
Be out there on Oct. 8. It is already an historic day. Let’s make it More So!!! Let’s Win.
— Lynne Stewart
Please sign the NEW petition for Lynne Stewart . Your signature will send a letter to Bureau of Prisons Director Samuels and to Attorney General Holder requesting that they expedite Lynne Stewart’s current application for compassionate release. The NEW petition is at https://www.change.org/petitions/new-petition-to-free-lynne-stewart-support-compassionate-release
