This photo is used courtesy of Associated Press.

 

#FREE CHELSEA was the topic of many posts to my Twitter account today. For those of you who may need a reminder of who Chelsea is, the paragraph below gives a summary of the situation.

 

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is a United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly three-quarters of a million classified or unclassified but sensitive military and diplomatic documents. Manning was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years’ imprisonment, with the possibility of parole in the eighth year, and to be dishonorably discharged from the Army. Manning is a trans woman who, in a statement the day after sentencing, said she had felt female since childhood, wanted to be known as Chelsea, and desired to begin hormone replacement therapy. From early life and through much of her Army life, Manning was known as Bradley; she was diagnosed with gender identity disorder while in the Army.

 

As I see the current effort to have Chelsea freed is that people are assuming current President Obama would be more sympathetic to the situation than Present-Elect Trump would be when he assumes office. A pardon would free Manning from the conviction of espionage. To this day, Manning has not denied that the allegations that were filed are true. My question is if someone is guilty of espionage and does not deny it 4 years later why should a pardon be issued? Obviously, thousands of people feel a pardon is the right thing to do. I will need persuasive logic and evidence before I can agree that pardon is appropriate.