Chelsea Manning reportedly on President Obama’s “Short List” for Commutation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 11, 2017

Contact:
Christina DiPasquale, 202-716-1953, christina@balestramedia.com
Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org

Chelsea Manning reportedly on President Obama’s “Short List” for Commutation

http://tumblr.fightforthefuture.org/post/155717758898/chelsea-manning-reportedly-on-president-obamas

Hundreds of thousands of petition signers, dozens of LGBTQ and human rights organizations have condemned U.S. government’s treatment of Chelsea, called for her release

NBC News is reporting that Chelsea Manning, who has served 7 years of a 35 year sentence, is on President Obama’s “short list” for commutation.

Chelsea Manning’s attorney at the ACLU, Chase Strangio, said:

“The Obama administration has done many commendable things to protect the rights of LGBTQ people, but in the case of Chelsea Manning they have systematically mistreated her and denied her access to medically recommended gender-related health care. Chelsea won’t survive another 5 years in prison, much less another 30. President Obama has 9 days to do the right thing and commute her sentence. The world is watching, and we hope that he stands on the side of justice, and that his legacy will be one of standing up for trans people’s rights, not having extinguished one of our community’s brightest lights.”

Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, said:

“Chelsea Manning is a compassionate, thoughtful, brilliant human being whose actions have always been motivated by the same thing: her desire to help people and make the world a better place. She has suffered enough. President Obama should act now to right this wrong before it’s too late.”

If the NBC News report is accurate and President Obama moves to commute Manning’s sentence, he will be responding to overwhelming public outcry about Chelsea’s mistreatment while incarcerated.

  • More than 100,000 people signed an official Whitehouse.gov petition, meeting the threshold to require a response from the President.

  • Hundreds of thousands have signed previous petitions organized by Fight for the Future and other groups decrying Chelsea’s treatment while in prison

  • The ACLU and more than a dozen prominent LGBT organizations sent a letter to President Obama calling for Chelsea’s commutation

  • Amnesty International sent a letter to President Obama, and supporters sent over 25,000 emails to the White House

  • Dozens of other human rights, free speech, government transparency, and civil liberties organizations have called for Chelsea’s release

  • A wide range of notable people have publicly supported Chelsea including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, retired U.S. Air Force

  • Colonel Morris C. Davis, journalist Glenn Greenwald, Sean Ono Lennon, REM lead singer Michael Stipe, comedian Margaret Cho, Thurston Moore, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and many others.

Learn more at FreeChelsea.com, and follow Chelsea on Twitter at @xychelsea

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Christina DiPasquale