Defense of PFC Manning

Home Manning Case Defense of PFC Manning

201111.22

Defense of PFC Manning

Recent accounts in the media regarding defense tactics, strategy, or intended courses of action at the Article 32 hearing are inaccurate. A pretrial hearing is not the appropriate venue for the defense to reveal its case. Instead, this hearing provides the defense with an opportunity to test the relative strengths and weaknesses of the government’s case and to obtain needed pretrial discovery.

The defense appreciates those who choose to support PFC Manning. However, these individuals or organizations should not be treated as official sources of information regarding his legal defense. All official statements will come through public releases from this office.

Comment (1)

John Burns
28 November 2011 - 4:37

My understanding is that the Sixth Amendment is as applicable to Mr Manning as it would be to a civilian. And yet his detention so far makes something of a mockery of the idea of a "speedy trial". Likewise, the failure of setting bail. Clearly he was no risk to himself or others and not a risk of flight. Obviously our civil rights are more like frosting on a cake and not to be taken too seriously when the gov. is involved. However, I would like to see something written about this by an expert in military law and proceedings but to date have found nothing.
Presumably an attorney like yourself is trained in a non military setting and then later on you get some training in how the military functions with legal matters. As I am sure you know most Americans are too busy with something else to know much of anything about the important features of their gov.