Ex-civil rights lawyer dies days after terror client's death

NEW YORK (AP) - An outspoken New York civil rights lawyer who represented the downtrodden 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.

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 small-time 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.

Stewart had battled cancer and several strokes.

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