In one of his last moves in office, President Obama has commuted the 35-year prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army private who leaked a massive trove of military secrets to WikiLeaks.
The former intelligence analyst's prison sentence has been shortened to expire on May 17, 2017, according to a statement from the White House.
Her lawyers at the ACLU expressed relief after the decision, saying that Manning has already served more time behind bars than any other whistleblower in U.S. history, and under difficult conditions.
Also at the BBC and the New York Times.
Previously: Chelsea Manning Reportedly on Obama's Short List for Commutation; Assange Offers Himself in Trade
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(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @10:51AM
0 killed, so Chelsea is no hero.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday January 18 2017, @01:00PM
0 killed
That's incredibly insightful for another reason. He's served "about a short murder sentence" and they've been waiting for a body to surface, no matter how politically distorted the argument will have to be to blame the leaker, but no bodies appeared over quite a few years.
This also fits in with the whole commuted sentence deal vs pardon. Well, he did do something illegal, but it hurt no one, so an in between response seems reasonable.
As I look out the window I see a guy jaywalking. In an attempt to avoid hitting him, a driver could swerve into a bus full of nuns and orphans causing zillions of deaths, that being why jaywalking is illegal. Lets toss that jaywalker into prison for a murder sentence and see if any bodies are found in the street or parking lot. (wait a decade here) Oh there were none found? Well, may as well let the jaywalker go, IF he had killed someone he served a murder sentence already anyway. And jaywalking is illegal even though I'm sure he had excellent reasons to do it so its not like he's getting a pardon just because there were no bodies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @04:08PM
Jaywalking is illegal because drivers don't want to slow down for every knobhead who wants to cross the road arbitrarily, and because a city based around taxation and fining needs to make bank.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @05:17PM
Jaywalking is illegal because early auto-makers didn't want pedestrians spoiling the driving experience, so they bought legislation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @08:53PM
...while, at the same time, upholding the oath taken to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]