Would you pardon Chelsea (Bradley) Manning

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Jumping on the pardon after ~one to five years because Manning did something illegal but not something I consider immoral bandwagon. I might change my mind to commutation to time served because I have heard some pretty awful rumors about the way Manning has been treated but other than the very beginning of the case and the trial over the past few weeks haven't been following events closely enough to know immediately how much trust there is to them. (I'm not using 'rumors' in a skeptical sense but in a neutral 'I heard about this through word of mouth from people who have had more sustained interest than I have' sense.)

ETA: I'm going to be referring to Manning systematically by name for a little while until thinking of this case as that of a woman sinks in, because obviously I want to respect that but I've been thinking of and hearing about it as the case of a man for a few years now and I actually find it harder to make these mental shifts with people I don't know.

[Velasco]

Well it is a system a system of torture and lets be frank any form of imprisonment is torture, even if SHU is much more so.  But you failed to answer the question posed, should prisoners subjected to solitary torture, be released because it is inhumane to do? or just manning because he is special.

There are more 'human' ways of imprisoning people, even in isolation regime. I thought it was implicit in my reply but, yes, I think all persons subjected to any type of torture must be released. I'm still ingenuous enough to think torture and democracy are incompatible concepts. On the other hand, everybody knows the imprisonment methods used in places like Guantanamo, so scepticism on the humanitarianism of certain governments is legitimate.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

No, of course not.

[RogueBeaver]

No, of course not.

[Dr. Cynic]

I might at a later date, but I wouldn't pardon her immediately.

[Link]

I still believe if Manning was in full command of his mental faculties he would not have done what he did.  I am of course assuming Manning wasn't completely sound of mind when he did the data dump.  I could see him getting some psychiatric help and being released after a reasonable amount of time.