Yesterday, two military experts who worked with Bergdahl after his release testified that Bergdahl provided very valuable intelligence on the Taliban and that he'd suffered more in captivity than anyone since Vietnam.

Today, two more Defense witnesses will be called and hopefully closing arguments will go down this week and a sentence will be delivered by early next week.

Ref: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/bergda...ar-AAuiSUR

(11-01-2017, 01:50 PM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: Yesterday, two military experts who worked with Bergdahl after his release testified that Bergdahl provided very valuable intelligence on the Taliban and that he'd suffered more in captivity than anyone since Vietnam.

Today, two more Defense witnesses will be called and hopefully closing arguments will go down this week and a sentence will be delivered by early next week.

Ref: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/bergda...ar-AAuiSUR

I feel like there needs to be a qualifier in that first sentence. Something like: "Yesterday, two military experts who worked with Bergdahl after his release testified that Bergdahl provided very valuable intelligence on the Taliban and that he'd suffered more in captivity and lived to tell about it than anyone since Vietnam. "

If anyone is interested in reading more about yesterday's military experts' testimony which I briefly summarized above, it's covered in a variety of news reports.

https://apnews.com/43f4c6b64b8842b1928033711a67df6a
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bowe-b...ay-n816286
http://www.journalgazette.net/news/20171...l-resource
https://www.ksat.com/news/national/bergd...-arguments

Thanks, HotD! I was surprised by the testimony of the military experts. I didn't think he had anyone on his side and certainly not any of the military. That was interesting to me.

Yeah, Berdahl does have his supporters. The Defense is calling some of them in attempt to get leniency from the judge in his sentencing.

Today's Defense witness testimony is underway. The Defense called a psychiatrist to testify about Bergdahl's mental health and diagnoses before he was a given a waiver and allowed into the army.

Dr. Morgan also touched on Bergdahl's account of his reportedly tough childhood and his failure at Coast Guard boot camp. The doctor said he thinks Bergdahl was already suffering from PTSD and a disorder similar to schizophrenia before he ever stepped foot in Afghanistan.

There's more detail at the link in post #141.

I'm really curious to hear the forthcoming sentence and the judge's rationale behind it. Judge Nance will need to consider aggravating factors presented by the Prosecution as well as mitigating factors presented by the Defense.

Sentence

That was a fast closing and final decision-making process.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will serve no prison time for endangering his fellow soldiers when he walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured by the Taliban.

Army Col. Judge Jeffery R. Nance said Bergdahl will be dishonorably discharged and have his rank reduced to private.

Nance said Bergdahl will also have to pay a fine of $10,000 ($1,000 a month for the next 10 months).

Judge Nance issued the ruling Friday after nearly two weeks of sentencing proceedings that included testimony by Bergdahl's former comrades. Bergdahl, 31, was held by the Taliban for five years before being released in a prisoner swap in 2014.

Kenneth Dahl, the Army general who led the investigation into Bergdahl's actions and interviewed the soldier for a day and a half, previously testified in a preliminary hearing that jail time would be "inappropriate."

He explained that during his time in captivity, Bergdahl said he was tortured, beaten and spent months chained to a bed or locked in a cage while his health deteriorated. For five years, he said, he was completely isolated, had no concept of time and was told he would be killed and never see his family again.

Refs:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/03/politics/b...ch+Results
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sgt-bowe-be...ison-time/

Legal experts say the sentencing likely does not represent the end of the Bergdahl case, noting that Bergdahl’s lead attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Yale Law School, is one of the nation’s leading military appeals lawyers.

“In some ways, this sentencing may be the warm up for the main event,” said Geoffrey Corn, a retired lieutenant colonel who is a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. “Bergdahl is represented by probably the best military appellate expert in the country. Trust me. He’s had the long-term battle on the radar from the beginning.”

Full story: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-bowe...story.html
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I hope the legal experts are wrong and that Bergdahl accepts his (lenient, in my opinion) sentence and moves on.