Chelsea Manning's #timeserved campaign reached an important milestone last weekend, when its petition garnered the 100,000 signatures required to compel a response from the White House.
The petition calls upon President Obama to commute Chelsea's 35 years sentence, based on the almost 7 years she has already been incarcerated, which includes 11 months of unlawful pre-trial solitary confinement. Also, because her 35 year sentence was unfairly long to begin with, considering the acts she committed were in the public interest and harmed no one.
As she explains in her commutation statement, Chelsea pleaded guilty, without the protection of a plea agreement, because she believed the military justice system would understand her motivation for the disclosure and sentence her fairly. Instead, the military judge sentenced her to 35 years of confinement, despite the fact that there was no historical precedent for such an extreme sentence under similar facts.
Chelsea's official Clemency petition includes letters from Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, and Morris Davis, each explaining, in their own words, about why they feel Chelsea has served long enough. "Ms. Manning was incarcerated at Quantico for just under one year under conditions the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture called ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading," says Daniel Ellsberg. "Now, she has been ordered to spend another seven days in solitary confinement as a punishment for her desperate act of attempting suicide. There is no doubt that these six years have been devastating to a person who sought nothing more than to inform the American public."
On October 4, 2016, Chelsea was again placed in solitary confinement. This time as punishment for her July 2016 suicide attempt. Chelsea had been working on her appeal for more than a week straight, and was waiting to receive the written notification of her sentence, so she could file it. But when she finally received the written notification, she was taken away to solitary almost immediately. As Chelsea explains: “I received written notification of the findings on Tuesday afternoon and was then placed in solitary less than 15 minutes later.”
Serving a solitary confinement sentence was especially hard on Chelsea, as it brought back memories of the unlawful pre-trial solitary confinement that she previously endured. (Two months in Kuwait, where she was completely in the dark, in a cage, in a tent, in 105 degree temperatures, for two months straight. Nine months in Quantico, Virginia, where she had to sit upright and stare at the wall all day.)
The UN special rapporteur on torture formally accused the US government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment towards Chelsea in 2012. Chelsea has also written first hand about her experiences in solitary confinement, which she refers to as '"no touch" torture.'
Being placed in solitary confinement again, and especially without warning, caused her a great deal of emotional distress. This caused her to again attempt to take her own life. It is now likely that she will soon be given more solitary confinement as punishment for the second suicide attempt, and that this cycle of solitary/suicide attempts will continue, if President Obama does not step in to stop it.
As Chelsea explains in her commutation statement: "I have since been placed in solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure for an attempted suicide despite a growing effort — led by the President of the United States — to stop the use of solitary confinement for any purpose. These experiences have broken me and made me feel less than human." (Here's more information about the connection between Solitary Confinement and Suicide, including the Op-Ed in the Washington Post by President Obama.)
Chase Strangio, the attorney for Chelsea's ACLU case, has also written a letter and made a video asking President Obama to commute Chelsea's sentence to #timeserved.
As Chelsea explains in her commutation statement: "I am merely asking for a first chance to live my life outside the USDB as the person I was born to be."
For more information, please visit FreeChelsea.com
The petition calls upon President Obama to commute Chelsea's 35 years sentence, based on the almost 7 years she has already been incarcerated, which includes 11 months of unlawful pre-trial solitary confinement. Also, because her 35 year sentence was unfairly long to begin with, considering the acts she committed were in the public interest and harmed no one.
As she explains in her commutation statement, Chelsea pleaded guilty, without the protection of a plea agreement, because she believed the military justice system would understand her motivation for the disclosure and sentence her fairly. Instead, the military judge sentenced her to 35 years of confinement, despite the fact that there was no historical precedent for such an extreme sentence under similar facts.
Chelsea's official Clemency petition includes letters from Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, and Morris Davis, each explaining, in their own words, about why they feel Chelsea has served long enough. "Ms. Manning was incarcerated at Quantico for just under one year under conditions the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture called ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading," says Daniel Ellsberg. "Now, she has been ordered to spend another seven days in solitary confinement as a punishment for her desperate act of attempting suicide. There is no doubt that these six years have been devastating to a person who sought nothing more than to inform the American public."
On October 4, 2016, Chelsea was again placed in solitary confinement. This time as punishment for her July 2016 suicide attempt. Chelsea had been working on her appeal for more than a week straight, and was waiting to receive the written notification of her sentence, so she could file it. But when she finally received the written notification, she was taken away to solitary almost immediately. As Chelsea explains: “I received written notification of the findings on Tuesday afternoon and was then placed in solitary less than 15 minutes later.”
Serving a solitary confinement sentence was especially hard on Chelsea, as it brought back memories of the unlawful pre-trial solitary confinement that she previously endured. (Two months in Kuwait, where she was completely in the dark, in a cage, in a tent, in 105 degree temperatures, for two months straight. Nine months in Quantico, Virginia, where she had to sit upright and stare at the wall all day.)
The UN special rapporteur on torture formally accused the US government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment towards Chelsea in 2012. Chelsea has also written first hand about her experiences in solitary confinement, which she refers to as '"no touch" torture.'
Being placed in solitary confinement again, and especially without warning, caused her a great deal of emotional distress. This caused her to again attempt to take her own life. It is now likely that she will soon be given more solitary confinement as punishment for the second suicide attempt, and that this cycle of solitary/suicide attempts will continue, if President Obama does not step in to stop it.
As Chelsea explains in her commutation statement: "I have since been placed in solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure for an attempted suicide despite a growing effort — led by the President of the United States — to stop the use of solitary confinement for any purpose. These experiences have broken me and made me feel less than human." (Here's more information about the connection between Solitary Confinement and Suicide, including the Op-Ed in the Washington Post by President Obama.)
Chase Strangio, the attorney for Chelsea's ACLU case, has also written a letter and made a video asking President Obama to commute Chelsea's sentence to #timeserved.
As Chelsea explains in her commutation statement: "I am merely asking for a first chance to live my life outside the USDB as the person I was born to be."
For more information, please visit FreeChelsea.com
