Breaking: Judge Reduces Possible Sentence for Manning (Unlawful Pretrial Punishment)

[struggle4progress]

41. Bradley Manning granted 112-day reduction in possible sentence

Judge rules that Manning had suffered excessively harsh treatment but reduction falls far short of defence team's hopes
Ed Pilkington at Fort Meade, Maryland
Tuesday 8 January 2013 17.23 EST

... "The charges are serious in this case and there was no intent to punish. There is no argument to dismiss the charges," the judge said.

Beyond dismissal, the defence had called for a diminution of Manning's sentence according to a ratio of 10 days reduction for every day of excessive treatment, to run for the entire duration of the nine months of the soldier's confinement at Quantico. That would have resulted in more than seven years being taken off his sentence.

But in the end, the judge agreed only to a straight day-for-day ratio, and further limited the duration of the reduction to narrowly defined periods where she found excessive treatment had taken place.

Specifically, she granted Manning seven days off any sentence for the seven days when he was kept on the most restrictive regime, known as Suicide Risk, against the advice of psychiatrists – the only Article 13 violation accepted by the prosecution; 75 days off sentence for when he was kept on the only slightly less onerous status of "prevention of injury", also against professional opinion; 20 days for having his underwear removed unduly after he made a joke that he could use that to harm himself; and 10 days for being granted just 20 minutes of recreation outside his cell every day when he should have been given a full hour ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/08/bradley-manning-112-day-reduction-possible-sentence