He had been incarcerated since 1995 for his advisory role in a failed plot to blow up Manhattan landmarks, including U.N. headquarters, as well as a key bridge and two heavily traveled highway tunnels leading into the city. His stated goal was to interfere with U.S. support for Israel and for Egypt.

Stewart was initially convicted in 2005 of assisting terrorism by confirming information received from her imprisoned client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, to his followers in Egypt, at a news conference. She had signed a "SAMS" regulation agreeing not to do so.

Although the Judge had initially dismissed the terrorism charge (opinion here), the Government filed a Superseding Indictment, charging her, the interpreter and one of the Sheikh's supporters, with providing material support to terrorists. All were convicted. (The translator's conviction was widely viewed as perplexing, if not unsupported.)

The evidence was largely based on her recorded conversations with her client at the jail. Attorney-client conversations became subject to recording under rules instituted by then AG John Ashcroft after 9/11. (Here is Ashcroft's regulation, 66 Fed. Reg. 55062 (Oct. 31, 2001)). Here's why it's bad.

She was initially sentenced to 28 months. On appeal, the Second Circuit affirmed her conviction but remanded the case back to the trial court for reconsideration of her sentence. and eventually was re-sentenced to ten years.

Here is a 2002 profile of Lynne, "Left Behind", in the New York Times Magazine.

R.I.P. Lynne Stewart.