AMY GOODMAN: Shortly after her sentencing, Lynne Stewart stepped outside the courtroom to a crowd of cheering supporters.

LYNNE STEWART: This is a moment that I share with every supporter that came, that called, that sent me a card, that stopped me in the street. It’s the cab drivers who gave me the thumbs up this morning. It’s everybody who had some role to play in this. I am very grateful to the judge that he gave me time off for good behavior, and he gave it to me in advance of the sentence, when he said that my extraordinary work meant that I could not get a sentence that the government wanted. They were disappointed, but I tell you, he did a fair and right thing, and I am grateful to him, but I am more grateful to the people — the people who showed up today, the people who have showed up, the people who had the meetings, the people who had dinners in their apartments, the people who raised funds, whatever it was. The support and love of the people is what has sustained me.

I am standing here with three of my 14 grandchildren. My lawyers pointed out to the judge that under new regulations, the government could have forbade me to ever see them again. This is how we have become in this country. And I hope the government realizes their error, because I am back out and I am staying out until after an appeal that I hope will vindicate me, that I hope will make me back into the lawyer I was.

Any regrets? I don’t think anybody would say that going to jail for two years is something you look forward to, but as my clients have said to me, I can do that standing on my head. No, the circle continues. We are going to go on. We have more struggle there. This is a time that cries out for renewed resistance to a government that is not only overreaching in a case like mine — I am the point person — but to a government that overreaches into all our lives.

I see the people before me today. We are not torturers. They are torturers, and we have to stop the torture. I do hope that we will be vindicated on appeal. We are surely going to take a militant and timely appeal and that there are plenty of issues, and we hope that that will be the result.

But I tell you, it is such a feeling of relief. I had my medications, my book. I had a pair of sweatpants to change into, because I was prepared for the worst. But like all Irish people, you prepare for the worst, something good happens. And something good did happen.

AMY GOODMAN: Civil rights attorney, Lynne Stewart. She is free now, pending an appeal of her conviction. Also speaking outside the courtroom was Lynne Stewart’s husband, Ralph Poynter.

RALPH POYNTER: I can only reiterate what people have already said. This is a victory of all of the committees, all of the people who supported this struggle. But we happened to be the focus, and I dare say that we are the happiest, for tonight we may even sleep. Thank you again.

AMY GOODMAN: Ralph Poynter, the husband of Lynne Stewart, standing outside the courtroom. Lynne Stewart was tried in the courtroom where the Rosenbergs were tried more than a half a century ago.