Recent rulings from the Fort Meade pre-trial hearings–
Trial delayed until June
By the Bradley Manning Support Network. January 23, 2013.
Bradley Manning, a 24-year-old Army intelligence analyst, is accused of releasing the Collateral Murder video,
which shows the killing of unarmed civilians and two Reuters
journalists by a US Apache helicopter crew in Iraq. He is also accused
of sharing the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and series of embarrassing US diplomatic cables.
These documents were published by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks,
and they have illuminated such issues as the true number and cause of
civilian casualties in Iraq, along with a number of human rights abuses
by U.S.-funded contractors and foreign militaries, and the role that
spying and bribes play in international diplomacy. He has twice been
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his heroic and noble actions.
For over 960 days he has been imprisoned without trial, 11 months of
which were spent in solitary confinement at Quantico prison, where his
treatment has since been judged to have amounted to unlawful pretrial
punishment.
Winter recap: torture hearings, trial delays, motive debates, and more
Pre-trial
hearings at Ft. Meade brought new developments for Pfc. Bradley
Manning’s defense, including four months of sentencing credit, another
three-month trial delay, debates over the failure to try Manning within
reasonable time, and an effort to make whistle-blowing treasonous.
Bradley
Manning has been to Ft. Meade for three hearings in the last two
months, including the marathon Article 13 motion surrounding Bradley’s
torturous nine months in Quantico, a 112-day reduction in a potential
sentence, speedy trial litigation, arguments over how motive will play
into the ‘aiding the enemy’ charge, and another court-martial delay. The
trial is now scheduled to start June 3, 2013, with pretrial hearings
set for February 26 – March 1 and May 21-24.
Judge ruled abusive treatment at Quantico was unlawful, awards sentencing credit
Following
over two weeks of testimony from Quantico guards and higher officers
about keeping Bradley in a 6×8 cell for 23 hours a day and denying him
exercise time and easy access to basic hygiene items Judge Denise Lind
ruled that Bradley was treated harshly and awarded him 112 days off of a
potential sentence. This is a meager rebuke and a scant reduction when
compared to the life sentence Bradley could face, but it is an important
symbolic vindication for those who fought so hard to raise awareness of
the disturbing treatment and to move Bradley from Quantico.
Read more: Bradley takes the stand, puts military captors on trial and
Judge rules Manning was illegally treated, awards 112 days credit
Three years is not a speedy trial
On Bradley Manning’s 964th day
in prison without trial, both parties argued over the defense’s motion
to dismiss charges for lack of a speedy trial. Under Rule for Court
Martial 707, the military was supposed to arraign Bradley in 120 days,
but it took over 600. Under Uniform Code for Military Justice Article
10, prosecutors are obligated to maintain diligence in trying the
accused. Defense lawyer David Coombs explained to the court that rather
than being proactive, the military was reactive, waiting for months and
months for other agencies to complete classification reviews, when it
should have been hurrying those processes along to get to court-martial
as quickly as possible. If Judge Lind finds Article 10 was violated, she
must dismiss charges. If she dismisses charges “with prejudice,”
meaning she finds that the military was prejudicial in denying Bradley a
speedy trial, then Bradley will walk free. However, if she dismisses
“without prejudice,” finding the delays were negligent but not
malicious, the military could simply re-charge Bradley with all of the
same offenses. She’ll rule at the next hearing, February 26 through
March 1.
Turning whistle-blowing into treason
Meanwhile,
in an attempt to curtail the defense’s ability to show Bradley Manning
is a whistle-blower, the government moved to preclude discussion of his
motive in determining his guilt or innocence. Judge Lind granted this
motion in part: the defense will not be allowed to show Bradley’s
motive, such as chatlog quotes showing that he wanted information to be
free, in debating whether he knew Al Qaeda would have access to the
cables he released (but it will be allowed to discuss motive during a
potential sentencing portion). The military will have to prove that
Bradley knew he was “dealing with the enemy” in passing information to
WikiLeaks. The defense will be allowed to show that Bradley selected
certain cables or types of cables to prove he knew which information
would not cause harm to U.S. national security if made public. The
government also moved to preclude discussion of over-classification,
trying to prevent the defense from arguing that documents released
needn’t have been classified in the first place. Judge Lind decided to
defer that ruling, and will make it at a later hearing. In this hearing,
the military also said that it would still charge Bradley Manning with
“aiding the enemy” if he’d released information to the New York Times
instead of WikiLeaks, an argument that would effectively turn
whistle-blowing into treason and one which troubled many journalists
following the proceedings.
Read more: Judge limits Manning’s whistle-blower defense, pretrial confinement nears 1,000 days and Transparency isn’t treason: New York Times journalists criticize “aiding the enemy” charge
The
defense is currently determining which classification information it
will need to present during the court-martial. Once it notifies the
government of that information, prosecutors have 60 days to determine
how to handle those documents in court. They can redact, substitute, or
summarize them, or they can ask the court to hold closed sections, open
only to the judge, defense, prosecution, and security experts with
sufficient clearances. Therefore, the trial is tentatively scheduled to
begin June 3, 2013.
Read more: Court-martial delayed again, expected to start June 3
Remaining proceedings:
- 26 February – 1 March, 2013: Accused plea and anticipated speedy trial ruling
- 10 April – 12 April, 2013: Issues regarding evidence for trial
- 21 May – 24 May, 2013:
How to deal with classified information during trial (either
substituting or redacting documents or closing portions of the trial to
the press and public)
- 3 June, 2013: Tentative trial start date; trial expected to last about six weeks
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