So What's Next for Bowe Bergdahl?

court room

So what's next for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who remains formally stationed with Army North at Ft. Sam Houston, now that he has pled guilty to serious charges relating to his abandonment of his post in Afghanistan in 2009?

News Radio 1200 WOAI reports Bergdahl will now face what the Uniform Code of Military Justice calls a 'pre sentence trial' starting next Monday at Ft. Bragg North Carolina.

Geoffrey Corn, a retired U.S. Army lawyer who is now a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, says the military judge, Col. Jeffrey Nance, will call witnesses from both sides, including potentially three soldiers who were wounded, two of whom suffering life changing wounds, while searching for Bergdahl.

But Corn says Bergdahl's lawyers can present testimony about Bergdahl's torture at the hands of the Taliban during five years of captivity, torture which has been described as worse than the treatment suffered by U.S. troops in the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' prison came in North Vietnam.

Bergdahl was beaten, starved, and held in a tiny 'tiger cage' for years by the Taliban, and Corn says Judge Nance will hear about the PTSD and other effects it had on Bergdahl.

"Expert witnesses to talk about the suffering he endured as a captive and the effect it had on him mentally," Corn said. "They can also talk about Bergdahl's plans for the future, and how he will become a productive member of society after his punishment."

Corn says it is surprising that Bergdahl agreed to plead guilty to Desertion and Misbehavior Before the Enemy without a sentence agreement on the table, but he says it could be an expression of accepting responsibility, and willingness to throw himself on the mercy of the court.

He says Bergdahl's lawyers may have reached an understanding with Bergdahl's commander on the range of sentencing. Col. Nance won't know that during the sentencing hearing, but any sentence he hands down will then be compared with any agreement with the presiding officer, and will have to be the lesser of the two.

Corn says there is no doubt in his mind that in addition to a Dishonorable Discharge, which is a serious punishment in and of itself and can only be handed out after a conviction at a court martial, he says prison time for Bergdahl is a 'certainty.'

"From a retribution perspective, the people who put their lives in jeopardy trying to find him are entitled to see a level of punishment that is appropriate for his misconduct," he said

.But Corn does not expect to see the maximum punishment, which is life in prison. He says in many ways the UCMJ is more lenient in punishment than civilian courts.  Military juries are even ordered 'not to hand down excessive punishment.'

"If I were a betting man, I would say a Dishonorable Discharge and somewhere between three and five years confinement."

The pre sentencing trial begins on Monday.


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