Bush Asked to Shorten Lindh Sentence

Apr 05, 02:55 PM

Current Headlines: Lawyers for John Walker Lindh, the California man known as The American Taliban, have again asked President Bush to commute or reduce Lindh's 20-year sentence.

Lindh, a 26-year-old convert to Islam, was seized with Afghan soldiers after a prison uprising in November 2001. He has 13 years left on a sentence he received the following July after pleading guilty to aiding and carrying weapons for the Taliban. Terrorism charges were dropped.

Attorney James Brosnahan, asking for a third time for a commuted sentence, joined Lindh's parents at a San Francisco news conference where he pointed out that David Hicks, a confessed al-Qaida trainee convicted of supporting terrorism in Afghanistan, drew only a 9-month prison sentence on Friday, the San FranciscoChronicle said.

A Defense Department spokesman, Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said the government viewed Lndh's case as more serious and that Hicks had been detained for more than five years before going to court.