Military judge cuts potential sentence for WikiLeaks soldier

[struggle4progress]

Source: Reuters

By Tom Ramstack
FORT MEADE, Maryland
Tue Aug 6, 2013 2:02pm EDT

A U.S. military judge reduced potential prison time for Private First Class Bradley Manning to 90 years from 136 years on Tuesday by ruling that some sentences for leaking secret files to WikiLeaks should be merged.

Court-martial Judge Colonel Denise Lind ... ruled that some counts resulted from the same offenses and should be merged to avoid "an unreasonable multiplication of charges" ...

For most of the espionage charges resulting from the transmissions, "there is no evidence of prosecutorial overreaching," Lind said ...

The sentencing phase began last week and is expected to last at least until Friday ...

The judge also ruled she would not allow the prosecution's "aggravation evidence" to be considered in sentencing unless it could be shown to be "a direct and immediate result" of information he gave to WikiLeaks ...



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/06/us-usa-wikileaks-manning-idUSBRE9750RY20130806

[msanthrope]

1. Sound right. She's being fair, and eliminating appeal points. nt

[COLGATE4]

2. +1 nt

[Hissyspit]

6. Fair Kangaroo Court.

She charge sheet change after the defense had rested.

She wouldn't allow Manning to argue whistleblower motive.

Give me a break.

[Tx4obama]

3. Kick n/t

[loudsue]

4. So was this thread locked and moved as "off topic" because there were too many posts against

his punishment, and moved so the cheerleaders of an unjust system could post? That's pretty strange, no?

[joshcryer]

5. Erm, this thread was posted 9 hours earlier.

Host rules are that the first thread posted becomes the de facto thread.

[struggle4progress]

8. Latest Breaking News ... Statement of Purpose ... No duplicates ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=about&forum=1014

[Hissyspit]

7. Alternate discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014558924