Ed Snowden. Brad Manning.
These are two names that may elicit a range of responses in people. Some despise the owners of these names and others like them. Others may feel neutral and many others applaud their courage and audacity.
Let's just look at some cold hard facts.
Federal/State Mandatory Minimum Sentences (Bold Sentences taken from the harshest State statutes)
Murder in the 1st Degree: None.
Trafficking Cocaine: 3 years (depends on amount)
Sexual Abuse: 1 year plus 1 day
Aggravated Sexual Assault (not rape): any term of years*
Rape: 10 years
Sex Trafficking of a child 14-18 (w/o force or fraud): 10 years
Enticing or coercing a child under 18 to engage in prostitution: 10 years
Transporting a child under 18 for illicit sexual purposes (Mann act): 10 years
Murder in the course of a Mann Act, sex trafficking, or production of child pornography offense: any term of years*
Child Pornography transportation, receipt, or sale: 5 years
Child exploitation enterprise; 3 or more instances involve 3 or more others and multiple victims of child pornography, child sex trafficking, or Mann Act involving a child: 20 years
Unlawfully bringing in aliens for profit or knowing the alien will commit a felony
within the U.S.: 3 years
Burning or bombing federal property: 5 years; 7 years if the offense
involves personal injury or a substantial risk of personal injury; if death results, 20 years or life
Brad (now known as Chelsea) Manning's Sentence: 35 years
Her crime? Telling the truth to people the Government wanted to continue lying to, namely: you and me.
What information was included in Manning's leaks to WikiLeaks?
Data pertaining to Government intel on WikiLeaks itself, media exposing war crimes committed by the U.S. and its foreign representatives, and other general documentation that the U.S. Government did not want you to see.
Let's take a moment to examine that top list of "mandatory minimum" sentences. Read it again. Then, read it once more just to let the information really sink in.
I could traffic YOUR 12 year old daughter and receive 10 years in a federal prison. 10 years. That means your daughter could be raped REPEATEDLY by strange men, possibly with STDs or other horrible disease, and I would spend 10 years in prison for it. Oh, and did I mention that, in many cases, the minimum isn't even the real minimum? If I had a shark for a lawyer I could be getting out on parole in a matter of years for "good behavior." How do you feel about that?
Now, consider that Chelsea Manning is sitting in prison for 25 years more than my sentence for selling your daughter as a sex slave. How do you feel about that?
Let's consider the phrase any term of years. I could sexually assault your 12 year old myself and serve that sentence. What does that mean? I could serve 1 year or I could serve 7 or I could serve 50. We don't know, it depends on the judge, jury, and how good my lawyer is. How does that make you feel?
I could rape your daughter and get "1 year and 1 day" in the harshest states (states like Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi). How do you feel about that?
Chelsea Manning is in prison serving out a sentence of 35 years for exposing truths about the U.S. and its military officials. Oh, and Julian Assange, the editor in chief of WikiLeaks and the man who actually published the leaks? What time is he serving? 0. In a storm of providence I discovered that Assange has been accused of sexually assaulting two women in Sweden. What is his sentence for that? Asylum in Ecuador.
Take what you want from this information.
