How March Madness figures into military hearing of Bradley Manning

Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted by military police departing the courtroom at Fort Meade, Md., in April. The U.S. Army private is accused of passing classified documents to secret-spilling WikiLeaks, By NBC News and wire services The defense team for Private First Class Bradley Manning — charged in the biggest security breach in U.S. history — invoked the soldier's excitement about March Madness as evidence that he was not suicidal and therefore should not have been held in isolation at the brig. The soldier, appearing at the sixth day of a pre-trial hearing at a military court at Fort Meade, Md., is seeking to avert a trial by arguing that he has been subjected to "unlawful pretrial punishment" and "unduly onerous confinement conditions." As the pre-trial arguments continued to run longer than scheduled, Military Judge Colonel Denise Lind delayed the soldier's trial by about a month to March. A former intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010, Manning stands accused of giving thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, including logs about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables. If convicted of the most serious count of the 22 charges against him — aiding the enemy — Manning could face life in prison. Manning was detained on May 29, 2010, and has been in pre-trial lock-up since. The pretrial hearings have focused primarily on a period of nearly nine months that he was locked up alone in a small cell at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., and forced to sleep naked for several nights. His lawyers say the solitary confinement constituted illegal punishment — and grounds to dismiss all charges. Military prosecutors in the case maintain that Manning's treatment was proper — confining him initially as a maximum-security detainee who posed a risk of injury to himself or others, and after further evaluation changing his status to medium risk. Among those who testified on Sunday was Staff Sergeant Ryan Jordan, who served as an Army liaison at the Quantico brig when Manning was detained. Jordan took part in a board that did a weekly evaluation of the level of restriction required for Pfc. Manning.  During cross examination, Jordan said there were several reasons Manning was kept on prevention of injury status — a restrictive status that is essentially one step below suicide watch. Among those reasons, he said, was that Manning rarely engaged in conversation with the guards and had made suicidal statements in the past. Jordan related an instance when he and Manning spoke about the upcoming March Madness — the frenzy around the national college basketball playoffs — and said that Manning talked about how he had enjoyed filling out brackets in previous years. Defense attorney David Coombs asked Jordan why those comments were not factored into a decision about Manning's potential to harm himself — essentially asking him whether someone filling out a bracket would indicate that they are not going to commit suicide because they are looking forward to a particular event and "planning it out." Jordan did not agree, saying that "everyone has a bad day." Coombs asked Jordan whether Manning having a possible gender identity disorder was factored into the decision to keep Manning on prevention of injury status, referring to the defendant as Breanna Elizabeth Manning, the alias Manning used when he first arrived at Quantico. A gender identity disorder "didn't weigh heavily" in his consideration, Jordan said. The defense attorney also put Manning's height and weight on the record Sunday for consideration by the judge, postulating that Manning may have been quiet because he was physically intimidated by Jordan. Staff Sergeant Jordan stands 6 foot 9 inches, while Manning is 5'2" and weighs about 105 pounds, Coombs said. At the end of Sunday's hearing, the prosecution still had several witnesses to call. NBC News' Courtney Kube and Kari Huus, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.  More content from NBCNews.com: Florida guide uses hunting as rustic therapy for combat veterans Police: Kansas City Chiefs linebacker kills girlfriend, then himself Cuba pushes swap: its spies jailed in US for American contractor held in Havana Passengers killed when tour bus hits Miami airport overpass Women warriors pass elite Army training course Teacher lured boys online to get nude pics, cops say 66 species of coral proposed for protection by US Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook