Exclusive: Dying Lawyer Lynne Stewart’s Jubilant Return Home After Winning Compassionate Release
The civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart has returned home from prison after a federal judge ordered her compassionate release. Stewart is 74 years old and dying from late-stage breast cancer. Viewed by supporters as a political prisoner, she had served almost four years of a 10-year sentence for distributing press releases on behalf of her client, Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric known as the "blind Sheikh." Stewart arrived to a group of cheering supporters in New York City on Wednesday. Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman and Renée Feltz were at the airport to cover the homecoming and speak with Stewart about her time behind bars and her plans to continue fighting for political prisoners — and for her own life — now that she's free.
TRANSCRIPT
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http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/2/exclusive_dying_lawyer_lynne_stewarts_jubilant
AMY GOODMAN: I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, with a national broadcast exclusive.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, we turn now to longtime civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart’s release from prison after serving almost four years of a 10-year sentence. Stewart is 74 years old and dying from late-stage breast cancer. Federal Judge John Koeltl granted her compassionate release on New Year’s Eve, and she returned home to New York on New Year’s Day. Koeltl wrote that Stewart’s "terminal medical condition and very limited life expectancy constitute extraordinary and compelling reasons that warrant the requested reduction [of her sentence]."
AMY GOODMAN: Viewed by many as a political prisoner, Lynne Stewart was jailed for distributing press releases on behalf of her client, Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric known as the "blind Sheikh," who was convicted of conspiring to blow up the U.N. and other landmarks in New York City. We’ll talk more about her case with her lawyer, Bob Boyle, but first, Democracy Now! was at the airport on Wednesday when Lynne Stewart arrived in New York, where she was met by her family and friends. She flew back with her husband, Ralph Poynter, who welcomed her the day before in Fort Worth, Texas, after she was released from the Fort Carswell Prison Medical Center.
ELLEN KIRSHBAUM: Yay! Victory! Amazing Grace!
AMY GOODMAN: We’re standing at the American Airlines arrival gate here at LaGuardia Airport. I’m Amy Goodman, with Democracy Now!’s Renée Feltz. Lynne Stewart has just landed, she and her husband, Ralph Poynter, flying in from Dallas-Fort Worth. She has been freed after four years in prison. The crowd is only growing, and security here is warning people to step aside, to get out of the exit spaces.
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