Additional mitigation is that, as far as I can tell, the data dump by Manning helped the world. The Arab Spring was born out of an outrage fueled by the honesty in US State Department emails released by Manning.
SInce the time of the US revolution, our constitution and courts have held that, if you torture someone, you can not then convict that person. Bush was told this when he allowed torture of the prisoners in Guantanamo. He, being really stupid, did not listen.
I am sorry that the military was stupid about Manning. However, one cannot change the past. Manning was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment before trial and should be released because of this gross violation of the US Constitution and the values for which our military fights.
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