The dean of law at the City University of New York has rejected a bid by students to honor a lawyer accused of helping a jailed Egyptian cleric direct terrorism from prison. Dean Kristin Booth Glenn told members of the graduating class Tuesday that attorney Lynne Stewart could not receive the award for public interest lawyer of the year during graduation ceremonies. Stewart, 63, was charged along with two others last year with helping deliver messages from her jailed client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, to the Islamic Group, an Egyptian-based terrorist group. All three have pleaded innocent and are scheduled to go to trial Oct. 7. Some law professors argued that despite the school’s liberal reputation, it could not afford bad publicity in times of sharp budget cuts from the city and state. “What message does this send to us?” Kathryn Hudson, who organized the petition drive, told The New York Times on Saturday. “If you can’t have free speech at a law school, where can you have it?” The students’ petition nominating Stewart was signed by more than half the graduating class. The criminal law society instead plans to give Stewart the award on its own behalf Thursday. Full Story
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