Prosecutors Say Attorney Supported Terror Yet Got Light Sentence

Lynne Stewart was sentenced to two years and four months in prison, escaping a maximum punishment of 30 years behind bars.^[1] Prosecutors assert that Stewart and co-defendants helped spread blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman's call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.^[2] The prosecutor wants a harsher sentence because Stewart received a "slap on the wrist," in their opinion.^[3]

Stewart is a civil rights attorney and Abdel-Rahman, who was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to blow up five New York landmarks and assassinate Egypt's president, was one of Stewart's clients.^[4]

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Barkow told a three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that the case should be returned to Judge John G. Koeltl for resentencing, arguing that the trial judge made a mistake in being lenient because no violent acts could be traced to the messages.^[5]

Stewart was arrested six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and she was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorist activity and providing and concealing material support to terrorist activity in 2005; she also was convicted of two counts of making false statements.^[6]

Barkow told a three-judge panel of the appeals court that the trial judge was wrong not to apply a terrorism enhancement to the Stewart’s conviction on charges that she smuggled messages between Abdel-Rahman and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization.^[7]

The appeals panel did not immediately rule, as two of the judges have made differing decisions; the third judge and likely swing vote on the panel, Robert Sack, did not join the discussion.^[8]

Providing material support to a terrorist organization is covered under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B underwhich it states that it is a crime to knowingly provide, attempt to provide, or conspirer to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization. The penalty for this is a fine or imprisonment for not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisonment for any term of years or for life.^[9]

“Material support” is defined as any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel (1 or more individuals who may be or include oneself), and transportation, except medicine or religious materials.^[10]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here. He has also written extensively on terrorist financing.

---

^[1] Larry Neumeister, Plea for New Sentence in NY Terror Case, January 30, 2008, January 9, 2008, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] 18 U.S.C. § 2339B (2007).
^[10] 18 U.S.C. § 2339A(b)(1)(2005).