Obama Faces Difficult Choices Amid Stream of Last-Minute Clemency Requests
Obama Faces Difficult Choices Amid Stream of Last-Minute Clemency Requests
Carrie Johnson
NPR
But for defendants facing decades in prison, there's not much to lose by asking. One of those mounting a last-ditch bid for clemency is NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Snowden's living in Russia under a grant of asylum, but under indictment in Virginia.
On the other hand, there's the case of Chelsea Manning. Manning is the Army private who leaked a huge trove of military secrets to the web site Wikileaks. She's already served seven years behind bars, more time than anyone else, she argues, for disclosing documents in the public interest.
"She absolutely will not survive her 35 year sentence," Strangio said. "She is a transgender woman in a men's facility. She's already attempted suicide twice and been punished with solitary confinement."
Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist who's been in prison for 40 years, serving two consecutive life terms. In 1977, Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.
His case has been championed by Amnesty International, Hollywood celebrities and human rights activists who believe he's innocent and got scapegoated by the government.
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