At 1:00 p.m ET Tuesday afternoon at Ft. Meade Army Base, Judge Col. Denise Lind found Pfc. Bradley Manning not guilty of the most serious charge he faced for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, aiding the enemy. Manning was also acquitted of another Espionage Act charge related to releasing a video of a U.S. airstrike on Afghanistan’s Garani airport.
He was found guilty of 20 other charges, however, including “lesser included offenses” (LIO) to which he had already pled guilty. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 136 years in prison.
Alexa O’Brien, who has painstakingly covered every aspect of the trial, created court transcripts and searchable data sets for the trial, tweeted the verdict.
We’ve compiled all the charges against Manning and their outcomes below, based on the Army’s original charging documents and the official announcement of the verdict.
| Charge / Specification | Description | Max Sentence | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHARGE 1: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 92. | “without proper authority, knowingly [giving] intelligence to the enemy, through indirect means.” | Life in prison or death | Not Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 1 | “wrongfully and wantonly [causing] to be published on the Internet intelligence belonging to the Unitsed States” | 2 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 2 | “unauthorized possession [of] a video file named “12 July 07 CZ ENGAGEMENT ZONE 30 GC Anyone.avi” | 2 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 3 | “unauthorized possession [of] more than one classified memorandum produced by a United States government intelligence agency” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 4 | “[stealing, purloining, or knowingly converting] to his use or the use of another…the combined Information Data Network Exchange database” | 10 Yeats | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 5 | “unauthorized possession of…more than twenty classified records from the Combined Information Data Network Exchange Iraq database.” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 6 | “[stealing, purloining, or knowingly converting]…the combined Information Data Network Exchange Afghanistan database containing more than 90,000 records belonging to the United States governemnt.” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 7 | “unauthorized possession of…more than twenty classified records from the Combined Information Data Network Exchange Afghanistan database” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 8 | “[stealing, purloining, or knowingly converting] to his use or the use of another…a United States Southern Comand database containing more than 700 records belonging to the United States government.” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 9 | “unauthorized possession of…more than three classified records from a United States Southern Comand database” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLTAION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 10 | “having unauthorized possession of…more than five classified records relating to a military operation in Farah Province, Afghanistan” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 11 | “unauthorized possession of…a file named “BE22 PAX.zip” containing a video named “BE22 PAX.wmv” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 12 | “[stealing, purloining, or knowingly converting] to his use or the use of another…the Department of State Net-Centric Diplomacy database containing more than 250,000 records. | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 13 | “exceeded authorized access on a Secret Internet Protocol Router Network computer [and obtaining] more than seventy-five classified United States Department of State cables.” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 14 | “exceeded authorized access on a Secret Internet Protocol Router Network computer [and obtained] a classified state department cable titled ‘Reykjavik-13’ “ | 2 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 15 | “unauthorized possession of a classified record produced by a United States Army intelligence organization, dated 18 March 2008” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 2: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 134. SPEC 16 | “[stealing, purloining, or knowingly converting] to his use or the use of another…the United States Forces – Iraq Microsoft Outlook / SharePoint Exchange Server global address list belonging to the United States government” | 10 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 3: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 92. SPEC 1 | “attempting to bypass network or information system security mechanisms” | 2 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 3: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 92. SPEC 2 | “adding unauthorized software to a Secret Internet Protocol Router Network computer.” | 2 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 3: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 92. SPEC 3 | “adding unauthorized software to a Secret Internet Protocol Router Network computer.” | 2 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 3: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 92. SPEC 4 | “using an information system in a manner other than its intended purpose.” | 2 Years | Guilty |
| CHARGE 3: VIOLATION OF THE UCMJ, ARTICLE 92. SPEC 5 | “wrongfully storing classified information.” | 2 Years | Guilty |
Table compiled by Joe Kloc, data via U.S. Army
Manning was found guilty of charges under the Espionage Act and of “stealing government property,” for leaking the Iraqi War Logs database and the Afghan War Logs database, for releasing the 2007 Iraq helicopter attack video, and for releasing some 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables.
If Manning is sentenced to the maximum time allowed for each offense, he would not be eligible for parole by the Army Clemency and Parole Board for 45 years and four months, under section Chapter 3, Section 1 of Army Regulation 15-130 (PDF).
Those sentenced under Army law are eligible for parole once “(t)he prisoner has served one-third of the term of confinement.”
Prisoners are eligible for clemency, however, after a much shorter time. If Manning is sentenced to the full ride, he will still be eligible after only five years.
Like in the civilian penal system, parole consideration in the military system is automatic once a prisoner has achieved eligible status. Clemency is rarer. But who knows what might happen post-sentencing in the political climate? Should it change, the Secretary of the Army could elect to award Manning clemency.
When it comes to sentencing, not only will the cases the prosecution and defense make influence Lind’s decision, but Lind herself has latitude. As David Frakt, a visiting professor of military law at the University of Pittsburgh, told the Huffington Post, “There is an enormous amount of discretion on the sentence. There are no mandatory minimums … and there are no guidelines of any kind.”
Character counts for more in military courts than in civilian ones. This may not help Manning one bit, but it is an X-factor. Lind may elect to allow Manning to serve concurrent sentences, especially on the 10 year maximum verdicts, instead of consecutive ones. Again, there is no obvious reason to expect her to, but it is within her discretion.
Additionally, the officer who convened the court martial in the first place, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan of the U.S. Army’s Military District of Washington, can lower any sentence handed out by Lind and even overturn a guilty verdict on any of the charges.
Any sentence handed out will be reduced by four months, as per an earlier ruling by Lind, due to Manning’s treatment at the Marine Brig in Quantico.
The sentencing phase of the trial begins Wednesday morning at Ft. Meade Army Base in Maryland.
Photo by Thierry Ehrmann/Flickr
