US deserter Bowe Bergdahl spared prison time

Daily News Article   —   Posted on November 6, 2017

(by Rebecca Kheel, The Hill) – U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will not serve any prison time for deserting his post in Afghanistan in 2009, a military judge ruled Friday.

The judge, Col. Jeffrey Nance, sentenced Bergdahl to a reduction in rank to private, a payment of $1,000 per month for 10 months and a dishonorable discharge, according to multiple reports.

Nance made no other comments, according to The Associated Press. [Bergdahl had chosen to be tried by a military judge instead of a jury, believing he had a better chance for a lighter sentence.]

Bergdahl, 31, pleaded guilty last month to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He faced a maximum sentence of life in prison. …

Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 14 years in prison. Defense attorneys, meanwhile, asked for no prison time, citing Bergdahl’s time in Taliban captivity (and instead asked the judge to give him a dishonorable discharge.) Following the sentencing, however, Bergdahl’s lead defense attorney Eugene Fidell told reporters outside the courtroom that he’ll appeal the dishonorable discharge.

“Dishonorable discharge is a lifetime stigma, and it deprives him of substantial benefits, which he badly needs,” Fidell said. “Beyond that, if you feel something fundamentally unfair has happened –– and I am talking about President Trump’s [comments] here…then you appeal.”

Bergdahl abandoned his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was caught and held captive by the Taliban until 2014 when President Obama made a controversial prisoner swap [exchanging Bergdahl for five Guantanamo Bay terrorist detainees. Bergdahl claimed he deserted his post because he wanted to travel to a larger base to report “a critical problem in my chain of command,” though he never specified what the problem was.]

Bergdahl’s defense lawyers twice tried to have the case dismissed over comments from the campaign trail, when Trump repeatedly called Bergdahl a traitor who should be executed.

“We’re tired of Sgt. Bergdahl, who’s a traitor, a no-good traitor, who should have been executed,” Trump said at an October 2015 rally… “Thirty years ago, he would have been shot,” he added.

Nance ruled Bergdahl can get a fair trial despite Trump’s comments, but said he would consider them as a mitigating* factor in the sentencing. [*mitigating means to make less severe. The judge said he would lessen Bergdahl’s sentence because of President Trump’s comments]

In an emotional sentencing hearing over the past week, prosecutors called soldiers who were seriously injured in the search for Bergdahl. Among those who testified was the wife of a soldier who was shot in the head and suffered a traumatic brain injury that left him unable to speak.

Bergdahl also…took the stand and offered a tearful apology for his decision to walk off his post…. “My words can’t take away what people have been through,” Bergdahl said last week. “I am admitting I made a horrible mistake.”

[In the beginning of the trial, Bergdahl was the first witness called by the defense and spoke for two hours telling his side of the story, giving an unsworn statement* that can’t be cross-examined by the prosecution. (*An unsworn statement is a statement made by an accused person, setting out the accused’s version of the facts, but which is not on oath and not subject to cross-examination. Retention of the right to make an unsworn statement continues to be a matter of considerable controversy.)]

Updated: 12:35 p.m.

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