Wikileaks: Manning Plea Offer

[JohnQPublic]

07 November 2012 (http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/2012/11/pfc-mannings-offered-plea-and-forum.html#comment-form) PFC Manning's Offered Plea and Forum Selection (http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/2012/11/pfc-mannings-offered-plea-and-forum.html#comment-form)
PFC Manning has offered to plead guilty to various offenses through a process known as "pleading by exceptions and substitutions." To clarify, PFC Manning is not pleading guilty to the specifications as charged by the Government. Rather, PFC Manning is attempting to accept responsibility for offenses that are encapsulated within, or are a subset of, the charged offenses. The Court will consider whether this is a permissible plea.

PFC Manning is not submitting a plea as part of an agreement or deal with the Government. Further, the Government does not need to agree to PFC Manning's plea; the Court simply has to determine that the plea is legally permissible. If the Court allows PFC Manning to plead guilty by exceptions and substitutions, the Government may still elect to prove up the charged offenses. Pleading by exceptions and substitutions, in other words, does not change the offenses with which PFC Manning has been charged and for which he is scheduled to stand trial.

PFC Manning has also provided notice of his forum selection. He has elected to be tried by Military Judge alone.
Posted by Army Court-Martial Defense Specialist (http://www.blogger.com/profile/16303346443475024466) at 8:54 PM

[JohnQPublic]

Analysis: Manning plea offer in WikiLeaks case carries risk, reward (http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre8a901o-us-usa-wikileaks-manning/) By Andrew LongstrethPosted 2012/11/09 at 8:05 pm EST

EW YORK, Nov. 9, 2012 (Reuters) — An offer of a partial plea by the U.S. Army private accused of leaking documents to WikiLeaks appears to be a two-pronged defense strategy that seeks to win sympathy from the judge and to shift the focus of the trial to charges that are more difficult to prove, legal experts said.
http://www.newsdaily.com/photos/2012-11-10T010528Z_1_CBRE8A9032H00_RTROPTP_3_USA-WIKILEAKS-MANNING.JPG
Army Private First Class Bradley Manning (C) is escorted in handcuffs as he leaves the courthouse in Fort Meade, Maryland in this June 6, 2012, file photo. REUTERS/Jose Luis Magana/Files




The offer from the accused private, Bradley Manning, was made public late Wednesday by his attorney, who indicated in a blog post that his client was willing to plead guilty to less serious offenses than those charged by prosecutors while contesting the other accusations in court.
The so-called naked plea is a rarely used tactic employed in military court proceedings and would only have to be accepted by the judge overseeing the case. It does not require consent from prosecutors who have brought 22 charges against Manning in what has been described as the largest leak of classified government documents in history...