by BELEN FERNANDEZ
Stewart dedicated her life to providing controversial and unpopular clients legal representation. She was often overworked, underpaid and sometimes not paid at all. She has made many enemies, perhaps none as powerful and influential as former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who laid the initial charges against her. Even while living a life full of struggle, Stewart extended her compassion to all human beings, including Abdel-Rahman (known as the “blind sheik”), whose extreme state of forced isolation compelled her to commit an act that she may pay with her life for.
Those who wish to discredit Stewart associate her with the charges laid against her clients while ignoring the fact that it is lawyers like her who keep the merits of the American legal system alive. Stewart’s case may indeed serve as a warning as Goodwin hopes. There is already a deficit of attorneys who are willing to represent those labeled as ‘terrorists’ for fear that they may also be targeted in the process. What is truly frightening, however, is the fact that the other warning that Stewart’s case provides about the degradation of the right to proper legal counsel in the US may be ignored until it is too late.
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