The defence will also be able to make a fresh argument in mitigation of sentence when Pistorius returns to the Pretoria high court, probably next year.
His legal team will argue in mitigation of sentence about his vulnerability as a disabled person and his remorse, and should not receive the maximum prescribed jail time.
He never ceased to hope, if not for pardon, at least for mitigation of sentence, keeping up in the Tristia and the Epistulae ex Ponto ("Letters from the Black Sea") a ceaseless stream of pathetic pleas, chiefly through his wife and friends, to the emperor.
(And indeed, a defense lawyer who failed to raise harsh conditions or mistreatment as mitigation of sentence would risk a strong claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, which is a violation of the Sixth Amendment).
It sets out a number of factors that can justify heavier or lighter punishment (or what lawyers call aggravation and mitigation of sentencing).
In another brief backing Manning, the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) said her "overall motive was to advance the public interest" and "the public interest value of some of the disclosures justifies mitigation of the sentence".
In mitigation, ahead of sentencing on Wednesday, counsel for Dobson said there was no evidence he had been the leader or prime motivator of the group that attacked the teenager.
The judge, who will hear pleas of mitigation before sentencing Shayler today - he faces a maximum of six years in jail - told the jury that the law lords had decided Shayler could not argue that he disclosed information in the public interest.
A crucial part of the case will be the defense's effort to present evidence, as mitigation against death sentences, of torture while the defendants were in the custody of the C.I.A.
