Plea for New Sentence in NY Terror Case

AP via SFGate ^ | 1/30/8 | LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer

[SmithL]

NEW YORK, (AP) --

A prosecutor urged an appeals court to order resentencing of a civil rights lawyer convicted of helping an imprisoned terrorist sheik communicate with his disciples because she received a "slap on the wrist."

Lynne Stewart was sentenced to two years and four months in prison, escaping a maximum punishment of 30 years behind bars. Prosecutors have said 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.

The sheik, 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.

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.

Stewart was arrested six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The indictment was brought by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002. 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.

Barkow told a three-judge panel of the appeals court that the trial judge was wrong not to apply a terrorism enhancement to the 68-year-old lawyer's conviction on charges that she smuggled messages between Abdel-Rahman and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization.

"She received a sentence that amounted to a slap on the wrist," Barkow said.

[SmithL]

Koeltl, John George

Born 1945 in New York, NY

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Nominated by William J. Clinton on April 26, 1994, to a seat vacated by Shirley Wohl Kram; Confirmed by the Senate on August 9, 1994, and received commission on August 10, 1994.

Education:
Georgetown University, A.B., 1967

Harvard Law School, J.D., 1971

Professional Career:
Law clerk, Hon. Edward Weinfeld, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, 1971-1972
Law clerk, Justice Potter Stewart, Supreme Court of the United States, 1972-1973
Assistant special prosecutor, Watergate Special Prosecution Force, 1973-1974
Private practice, New York City, 1975-1994

Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Male

[squibs]

Personally I think she should be taken out and hanged
in public.

[livius]

Will wonders never cease! I’m glad to see they’re appealing the sentence. It was definitely a slap on the wrist; she was knowing and willingly relaying messages for a terrorist. But of course, since she’s a radical leftist and has a track record of hating the US, in the mind of the leftwing court system, she’s groovy, man.

Glad the AG is appealing.

Hanging her would be fine with me, too, but realistically speaking, even a few years in jail would be better than what she got initially.