A federal appeals court yesterday upheld the conviction of disbarred lawyer Lynne Stewart and instructed a lower court to revoke her bond and direct her to begin serving her time immediately for providing material support to a terrorist conspiracy.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in United States v. Stewart, 06-5015-cr, told Southern District Judge John G. Koeltl to revisit the two years and four month sentence he gave to Ms. Stewart in 2006—a sentence she observed to supporters afterwards she could “do standing on my head.”
The government had asked that Judge Koelthl impose a 30-year sentence on Ms. Stewart, who has been free on a $500,000 personal recognizance bond pending her appeal.
Judges Robert D. Sack and Guido Calabresi were in the majority in holding that Judge Koeltl needed to review the weight he accorded to mitigating factors that led him to give Ms. Stewart a lower sentence. In particular, the court faulted Judge Koeltl for failing to make a finding on whether or not Ms. Stewart committed perjury at trial.
