Chelsea Manning’s appellate counsel: We’ll leave no stone unturned in our quest for justice

Nancy Hollander and Vincent Ward, Co-counsel for Chelsea Manning’s legal appeals

June 15, 2014. By Nancy Hollander and Vincent Ward.
We are honored, humbled and excited to be Chelsea Manning’s appellate lawyers. We have had the opportunity to meet Chelsea in-person at the Fort Leavenworth, KS facility where she is currently serving her sentence, and we are confident that we will work well together.  We are planning to spend a great deal more time working closely with her as we prepare her appeal
This appeal is far from a mere formality. We have agreed to devote the significant time and energy that will be necessary for this case only because we believe that we have a real chance to reverse her conviction. Appeals are never easy but even at this early stage we know we have many valid issues to work with and we know that if justice prevails, we will win.
The Espionage Act—always a poorly written and often-abused law—has now become little more than a trap to ensnare those who embarrass the government. Chelsea’s espionage conviction alone requires that she appeal her case, not only for her sake but for the sake of all Americans. The way the court interpreted the espionage charges in Chelsea’s case completely fails to distinguish between providing information to harm the United States and sharing information in the public interest. Unless we act to reverse the misuse of this statue in Chelsea’s case, the stage has been set to incriminate any American whistleblower who reveals wrongdoing to the media.
We also know Chelsea’s sentence is far, far too long. We know her constitutional rights were violated by her year of torturous and shameful pretrial solitary confinement and the government’s failure to provide her the speedy trial to which she was entitled.
We know the military court prevented her from bringing to trial the witnesses she needed; she was denied access to crucial evidence and even the President of the United States declared her guilty before the first day of trial. All of these issues are grounds for overturning charges during appeals.
We expect to discover even more grounds for appeals as we finish examining the trial record, which is the longest in military legal history.
There’s no denying that this be a long road; we have much work ahead of us. But we pledge to turn every page, research every issue and leave no stone unturned in our quest to right the injustice of Chelsea’s conviction and sentence. What the military has done to Chelsea is wrong and it is unconstitutional. Her conviction, as it stands, is nothing short of dangerous to a free society. We hope that you will support our fight to overturn this conviction through appeals, and thus prevent a deeply undemocratic and flawed precedent being set for our country’s future.

Chosen by the National Law Journal as one of the nation’s top-50 women litigators, Nancy Hollander will represent Amy whistleblower Chelsea Manning during her appeals process. Her co-counsel on the case is Vincent Ward, who possesses specialties in the areas of military law and government disputes.