Lynne Stewart, lawyer who represented blind sheik, Black Panthers, dead at 77
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In this Aug. 30, 2016 photo, Lynne Stewart talks during an interview at her home in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The once-prominent New York civil rights lawyer convicted of helping a terrorist client communicate with his followers is still battling the cancer that earned her compassionate release from prison over two years ago and she is still as radical as ever, even expressing support for the killers of police officers. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) (The Associated Press)
An outspoken New York civil rights lawyer who represented clients ranging from small-time criminals to radicals and was released early from prison three years ago because she was expected to die of cancer has died. Lynne Feltham Stewart was 77.
Her husband, Ralph Poynter, says Stewart died Tuesday in the Brooklyn home where she lived after receiving a "compassionate release" from prison in January 2014.
Stewart was disbarred after she was convicted of helping a terrorist client communicate with followers.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The mother of seven was a schoolteacher in Harlem in the 1960s before launching a legal career that brought her into the public spotlight.
Her clients ranged from crooks to members of the Black Panthers, Weather Underground leaders and a former hit man.
Her most notorious client -- a blind Egyptian sheik convicted in the terror case -- died last month.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Stewart had battled cancer and several strokes.