A military judge is poised to deliberate the prison sentence of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning on Tuesday and decide whether he will serve the 25 years the defense has requested, the 60 years the prosecution is seeking or the 90 years his crimes could bring.
Col. Denise Lind is overseeing the court-martial of Manning. He faces up to 90 years in federal prison for releasing more than 700,000 U.S. documents about military strategies and diplomatic communications to WikiLeaks for publication. The information dump included battlefield videos that showed deaths of civilians.
On Monday, prosecutors asked the judge for a 60-year sentence, arguing that Manning should spend most of the rest of his life in jail because the secrets he released put other Americans in danger and ended up costing the U.S. government money.
Manning’s defense attorneys see differently. They say he should have to serve only 25 years in prison because he didn’t mean to cause damage to the U.S. government but intended only to expose wrongdoings — like a whistleblower.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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