http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/nyregion/11stewart.html?8br
Lynne F. Stewart, an outspoken lawyer known for representing a long list of unpopular defendants, was convicted yesterday by a federal jury in Manhattan of aiding Islamic terrorism by smuggling messages out of jail from a terrorist client.In a startlingly sweeping verdict, Ms. Stewart was convicted on all five counts of providing material aid to terrorism and of lying to the government when she pledged to obey federal rules that barred her client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, from communicating with his followers. Her co-defendants, Ahmed Abdel Sattar and Mohamed Yousry, were also convicted of all the charges against them.
This just makes me sad. She completely broke the law - obviously, no doubt about it, and she even appeared to really flaunt the law when she actually read a statement from her client to the media. It was actually really stupid, too, b/c the statement she read said that her client was withdrawing support for a cease-fire. I mean, come on, was she daft? This totally violates the Social Workers Code of Ethics (okay, she wasn't a social worker per se, but that's my frame of reference, and I think a LAWYER should be even more aware of these things than a social worker).
And yet, my heart goes out to her...maybe just cause she's crying in her photo? Stupid reason, esp. considering all the problems that could have been caused by her behavior - a lot of people crying for dead relatives, for example, if this man's comments had inspired more violence. The fact that they apparently didn't is really beside the point, kind of like pointing a gun at someone - pulling the trigger - and the gun sticks. You still tried.
I guess I just see too many woman (and yes, sorry women, we seem to be the ones that are this stupid!) get duped by men with ulterior motives. There was an article - I think in - Cosmo (sigh, okay, I read it, can we move on?) about women in prison in some Central or South American country b/c they find a man who convinces them they are the love of his life and then they agree to run drugs for him. Okay, so, a 2-part question:
1 - What do you think of the sentence this lawyer got?
2 - Why are we so stupid?? When will we stop believing men who say they love us and yet obviously do not have our best interests at heart?
Kitties (of the "come on women, we are so better than this!" class)