[Whitfield:] The U.S. Army says it's not going to provide hormone replacement therapy for Bradley Manning. He says he wants to transition from being a man to a woman and plans to change his name to Chelsea, but he'll be doing that from the military prison in Kansas. He's facing a 35-year sentence after being convicted of leaking classified documents to Wikileaks. Our Chris Lawrence has more.
[Chris Lawrence, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] The battle lines are drawn. Bradley manning wants hormone therapy and his friends say he needs it.
[Lauren Mcnamara, Friend Of Bradley Manning:] This is a medical necessity.
[Lawrence:] Lauren McNamara chatted online with Manning and testified in his defense. She also transitioned from male the female.
[Mcnamara:] Just because they're in prison, similar to denying them treatment for depression.
[Lawrence:] But the army has never provided hormone replacement therapy to any soldier. Prison officials tell us Manning will wear the standard prison uniform at the all-male Fort Leavenworth and he will not receive the hormones he says he needs to transition to a woman.
[Neal Minahan, Pro-lgbt Attorney:] He would have a better shot in a federal or state prison.
[Lawrence:] Attorney Neil Minahan fought and won the right for one of his clients to get hormones in Massachusetts. State and federal prisons don't have a blanket ban on the therapy like the military. Consistent injections can cost thousands of dollars and taxpayers have been paying for prisoner's therapy for years.
[Minahan:] It can't just be him stating he wants to get this, this medication. It needs to be a prescription.
[Lawrence:] But several military doctors have already diagnosed him with gender identity disorder. While he was deployed to Iraq, Manning e-mailed this foe toy to his sergeant and described wanting to live as a woman.
[Mcnamara:] This was often pushed aside because the unit was underpowered.
[Lawrence:] So Manning stayed in Iraq and later became the man behind the largest leak of classified material in U.S. history. Legal experts tell us it's that crime and Manning's behavior while being held that will determine whether he's paroled. They don't believe his gender identity issues will be a huge factor. Chris Lawrence, CNN, The Pentagon.
[Whitfield:] All right, Bradley Manning's lawyer says he hopes the army will do the right thing and provide his client with hormone replacement therapy. If not, the lawyer says he'll do what he can to force the army to pay. Let's bring in our legal guys, Avery Friedman, a civil rights attorney and law professor in Cleveland, and Richard Herman, a New York criminal defense attorney and law professor joining us from Las Vegas. All right, Gentlemen, good to see you both. OK, so let's talk about in what way federal taxpayer dollars could pay for this. Whether it be the military decide OK, it will happen while in a military prison or federal prison. Avery, what's at issue here? Where he would serve his time or who would pay for this hormone therapy or both?
[Avery Friedman, Civil Rights Attorney:] Yes, he's going to serve his time no matter what although ironically with good behavior and giving credit for his time in, he could be out in seven years from now. I don't know if it will happen, but the big difference is that under federal law, at least if he were a civilian, there would be a so- called Article 3 making those decisions. Here, it's governed under Article 2, the military itself. It is there a right. The case is unprecedented because there is no case in American history when it comes to military law that would afford him this and he has what they call gender dysphoria. It is a condition, but he argued that during this trial, what does this have to do with leaking documents. The judge was right. It's got nothing to do with anything. He's not going to get treatment. He'll going to get counseling.
[Whitfield:] Avery, you used the operative word there, you say no precedence in military, I guess prison, but there is some in other jurisdictions, Richard, so will it boil down to whether he should be in a federal institution some other institution than that of a military one in order for him to get this therapy?
[Richard Herman, Criminal Defense Attorney:] I don't know why it's going to boil down to that. He's going to be in Fort Leavenworth. There was one instance in Massachusetts where a federal judge directed it for a civilian, but here, let's face it. He was convicted of six counts of violation of the espionage act, but illegally acquiring and transferring confidential information. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison, Fred. Now, I have clients in federal facilities who are complaining of federal facilities and it takes six months to get them to the infirmary. I got clients that are on Lipitor, statins and can't get them for like ten months. It's absurd. Some of these cases we cover, this is beyond insanity. There's no way that taxpayers are going to pay $100,000 for a gender transformation for this guy while he's in prison. If he wants to be Chelsea, he can practice all he wants in Fort Leavenworth. Then when he gets out, he can have the operation and he can pay for it.
[Whitfield:] The issue has to be why now. Why wouldn't this be addressed long before trial? Long before sentencing? Why now? Why would his request be made now when the argument will be this is something you could have done long ago, right?
[Herman:] He argued at trial that it was a defense. He said there was a connection. When he puts that wig and lipstick on, the guy's a dead ringer for Tonya Harding, isn't he? It didn't work. It was a silly defense, frankly. But again, understand the argument that it somehow impaired his ability to think correctly. It didn't work then. It's not going to work now. I think it's going absolutely nowhere.
[Whitfield:] OK, all right, well, we're going to talk to you again. We got another case to talk about, a very serious matter in about 15 minutes. We're going to talk about a case of assisted suicide and it has a lot of people talking and a lot of people feeling like they can see themselves in a very similar situation. And that includes a woman who says all she wanted to do was relieve her terminally ill dad of his suffering, so now, she's facing up to ten years in prison for allegedly handing him a vial of morphine. We're going to talk about that when we come back, Richard and Avery and everybody else.