Gov't: Ex-NY lawyer convicted in terror case can't go free unless Bureau of Prisons says OK

Published January 13, 2015

The government has told a federal judge in New York he doesn't have authority to release an ailing disbarred civil rights lawyer serving a 10-year prison sentence after a terrorism-related conviction.

Prosecutors say in court papers a request by lawyers for Lynne Stewart that a judge order her release so she can better fight terminal cancer should be rejected. They say a judge doesn't have the authority to reconsider or modify a term of imprisonment previously imposed unless the Bureau of Prisons requests it.

Defense lawyers made the request last week after the director of the Bureau of Prisons rejected a compassionate-release request from Stewart in June.

Stewart was convicted of helping a blind Egyptian sheik relay messages from prison. She's at a Texas medical center. She's been imprisoned since 2009.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/us/govt-ex-ny-lawyer-convicted-in-terror-case-cant-go-free-unless-bureau-of-prisons-says-ok