Things have indeed changed.
“Manning has been in confinement for 1,294 days, including 112 days sentencing credit which he was granted when the judge found that he had been subjected to unlawful pretrial punishment during his nine months of confinement at the brig at Marine Corps Base Quantico. This time will serve as credit and reduce his sentence to just over thirty-one and a half years.
“Manning is unlikely to serve his entire sentence in prison. He will immediately be able to petition for clemency from the court martial Convening Authority Major General Jeffrey Buchanan. A clemency and parole board in the Army can look at his case after a year. After that initial review, he can then ask the board to assess his sentence on a yearly basis for clemency purposes.
“Manning has to serve a third of his sentence before he can be eligible for parole. Appeals application to the Army Criminal Court of Appeals will automatically be entered after the sentence is issued. If Manning or his lawyers do find issues to press, they can take the case to the Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces and then possibly the US Supreme Court.
There is “good behavior” credit, which can be as much as ten days for each month of his confinement.
I have discovered a few things since my Post #59.
SGT Roderick Ramsay was apparently released from Federal Prison sometime around 2004 (he was sentenced to 36 years in 1992). According to the blog post, he was also later arrested for robbery in 2007 and served time for that offense. More here:
http://open.salon.com/blog/ellipses/2011/07/16/nobody_waits_tables_better_the_spy_who_served_me
So, I think that it’s safe to assume that Manning might serve about 10 years, more or less. For a peak at his future life, go here:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130821/DA8ADKU01.html