As part of Stewart's defense of Rahman, and her serving for several years on post-conviction issues, she was subject to modified " special administrative measures " which govern communications between suspects and their legal counsel. Stewart had accepted the condition that, in order to be allowed to meet with Abdel Rahman in prison, she would not "use [their] meetings, correspondence, or phone calls with Abdel Rahman to pass messages between third parties (including, but not limited to, the media) and Abdel Rahman". The special administrative measures, or SAMs, were modified in the wake of the September 11th attacks and were designed to prevent communications that could endanger US national security or lead to acts of violence and terrorism.
5. Lynne Irene Stewart (October 8, 1939 – March 7, 2017) was an American defense attorney who was known for representing controversial, famous defendants. She herself was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists in 2005, and sentenced to 28 months in prison.
Michael Ratner spent the last half century steadfastly fighting for human rights. He was a radical lawyer, who led the Center for Constitutional Rights. He was an outspoken advocate for civil liberties and truth-telling, as he represented WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
Shadowproof is a financially independent news organization. All of our funding comes from small donations made by readers like you. We use your donations to hire freelance writers and cover our operating costs.
As all first-year law students learn, in the American adversary system every criminal defendant has a right to counsel. This right is enshrined in the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution [10] and explicated in the Canons of Professional Ethics.
On the subject of torture, the story is very different. We have not made nearly as much progress in our journey to disavow torture as we have in our decision to turn our backs on the early Guantánamo model of detentions without hearings or counsel.
As a society, we have learned to expect that defense lawyers will argue for fair treatment of those we detain. That is why there was such unanimity, across political lines, in rejecting Liz Cheney’s reactionary complaints.