FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2017
Contact: Mark Stanley, 202.681.7582
[email protected]
In the past year, Demand Progress members helped pushed a White House petition calling for clemency and time-served for Chelsea Manning past 100,000 signatures, and Demand Progress also delivered more than 100,000 signatures to the Secretary of the Army in opposition to solitary confinement for Manning. Demand Progress has helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for Manning’s legal defense. The following statement can be attributed to Demand Progress executive director David Segal:
“Chelsea Manning has served more time in prison than any other person in U.S. history who disclosed information in the public interest, including a year in solitary confinement — treatment considered torture by the United Nations. Today, President Obama made the right choice to commute the bulk of Manning’s sentence. The president’s decision will help mitigate the unjust and disproportionate punishment suffered by Manning. We congratulate Chelsea on her commutation, and we thank her supporters across the country for their unrelenting support for her cause — without them, this day would not have been possible.”
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