In Fact...

ROUGH JUSTICE

David Cole writes: "She has represented the poor, the disadvantaged and the unpopular," and in doing so has "performed a public service." So said US District Court Judge John Koeltl in rejecting the government's request that he sentence Lynne Stewart to thirty years for having issued a press release from the imprisoned Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in violation of an administrative agreement. Under the government's proposal, Stewart, now 67 and recovering from breast cancer, would almost certainly have died in prison. Judge Koeltl, exercising judgment in a case where the Justice Department showed none, instead sentenced Stewart to two years and four months--still a substantial sentence, but one that would permit her to live out most of the rest of her life in freedom. He also rejected a request that he send Mohammed Yousry, a translator, away for twenty years for his "crime," which consisted of merely doing his job; Yousry got twenty months. A third co-defendant, Ahmed Abdel Sattar, who should not have been tried with the others, because his independent crimes were so much more culpable, received a twenty-four-year sentence. Judge Koeltl did the right thing. But had the Justice Department done the right thing in the first place, neither Stewart nor Yousry would have been prosecuted. Their imprisonment--even for a day--will not make any of us one bit safer.

TRAPPED IN ALBANY

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