The AP reports on a brief submitted by prosecutors arguing for a long prison sentence for convicted terrorist enabler Lynne Stewart. They dismiss defense claims that Stewart mistakenly crossed the line from zealous defender to an unwitting accomplice who deserves no jail time for her error:

Stewart's "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group, deserves to be severely punished," prosecutors wrote in a document submitted Thursday to a judge.

Her lawyers have argued that Stewart should receive no prison time, arguing that a harsh sentence would frighten other lawyers from representing notorious clients and that Stewart's three decades of distinguished work for indigent clients should speak louder than a single serious mistake.

The prosecutors see it differently.

"Stewart did not walk a fine line of zealous advocacy and accidentally fall over it; she marched across it and into a criminal conspiracy," Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Dember wrote. "The government obviously did not prosecute Stewart because she is a zealous advocate, but rather for blatantly and repeatedly violating the law."

Dember wrote that Stewart's "conduct was not isolated to one single event; rather, it showed a pattern of purposeful and willful conduct, in which she played a central role in repeated fraudulent attempts to pass messages to and from Abdel-Rahman."

The prosecution notes that Stewart lied to investigators on at least two occasions. She told them that Sheok Abdel Rahman's prison allowed him to issue press releases as a cover for her own statements on his behalf when she had known it to be forbidden. Stewart also denied knowing a figure of international terrorism when questioned, and then reversed herself when under oath. Both incidents show that Stewart knowingly violated the law on behalf of the spiritual leader of the Islamist cell that attacked the World Trade Center in 1993.

Prosecutors seek a 30-year sentence for Stewart's crimes. At 65, that would be a life sentence, especially since convicts of federal crimes must serve 85% of their sentences before parole eligibility. Given that her crime allowed Rahman's rescission of a cease-fire to get transmitted to his operatives abroad in 2000, which then resulted in terror attacks that cost others' lives, it seems a fitting end for Stewart and her cohorts. Her sentencing hearing comes next month -- twenty months after her conviction. (via The Corner)

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Tracked on September 5, 2006 11:18 AM