Bradley Manning's mental health was so fragile that he should have been removed from combat, according Manning’s defense lawyers.

Manning, 25, was convicted last month of espionage and mishandling classified data for disclosing 700,000 US diplomatic cables and battlefield reports to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. As part of the sentencing phase of the trial, Manning’s defence team hopes to convince Army Colonel Denise Lind, the military judge, to reduce Manning’s sentence from a possible 90 years.

While he was in Iraq Manning frequently broke down and exhibited a mental condition that should have never warranted a security clearance. Colonel David Miller, a commanding officer who oversaw 4,000 troops in Manning’s brigade, admitted in court that the unit was up against a shortage of intelligence analysts.