President Obama Commutes Chelsea Manning’s Sentence

Manning’s Sentence Was Longest Ever Imposed for Similar Convictions

President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning in an announcement Tuesday via a statement released by the White House. Ms. Manning is to be set freed on May 17 of this year, rather than in 2045. Manning was convicted on Aug 21, 2013 by a U.S. military judge who sentenced her to 35 years in prison for release of confidential and some secret military and government documents to the web based activist group WikiLeaks.

During the daily press brief earlier Tuesday, presidential Press Secretary Joshua Earnest was asked about the pending petitions for clemency, a commutation for Ms. Manning, and a request for a pardon for Edward J. Snowden, a former intelligence NSA contractor who disclosed archives of top secret surveillance files. He is currently a fugitive living in Russia. 

“Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,” Earnest said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy.” 

Earnest told reporters that while the documents Manning provided to WikiLeaks were “damaging to national security,” Snowden’s disclosures were “[by] far more serious and far more dangerous.” 

Manning’s pretrial confinement drew the attention of human rights activists as did her ongoing incarceration. Ms. Manning had been suffering from an inability to adequately address her gender dysphoria and was unable to transition to her female gender. During her confinement at the U. S. military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Manning has tried twice to commit suicide according to her attorneys who also noted that her 35-year long sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction of a similar nature.

 

Brody Levesque is the Chief Political Correspondent for The New Civil Rights Movement.
You may contact Brody at Brody.Levesque@thenewcivilrightsmovement.com 

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Image by Chelsea Manning via Wikimedia