Bradly is antisocial, but that does not necessarily mean he has a severe personality disorder, and certainly not schizophrenia. He may have bipolar disorder, but he would have to be diagnosed with that, and I have not yet heard that from his defense team. Most personality disorders would not be sufficient for a mental illness defense. The closest would be borderline personality disorder, but historically that has not worked as an insanity defense.
It used to be antisocial and immature people were seen as having character issues, not mental illnesses. But now every condition has a name. Are you an introverted nerd? There's a pill for that.
They hit him on a UCMJ Article 104 charge (Aiding the enemy), which carries the punishment of " ... death or such other punishment as a court-martial or military commission may direct." I wish they had also charged him under Article 106 (Spies), which only carries the death penalty. His case is almost textbook Article 106:
(1) That the accused was found in, about, or in and about a certain place, vessel, or aircraft within the control or jurisdiction of an armed force of the United States, or a shipyard, manufacturing or industrial plant, or other place or institution engaged in work in aid of the prosecution of the war by the United States, or elsewhere;
Certain place within the control or jurisdiction of an armed force of the United States - Check. The question would be the "found" part. Does Article 106 require being "caught in the act"?
(2) That the accused was lurking, acting clandestinely or under false pretenses;
This may be harder, but he did act under false pretenses by acting as if a blank CD-ROM was a Lady Gaga CD and faked singing to the music while he copied classified files to the disc.
(3) That the accused was collecting or attempting to collect certain information;
Check.
(4) That the accused did so with the intent to convey this information to the enemy; and
Another hard one. But the UCMJ does not say "convey directly", just convey.
(5) That this was done in time of war.
He could claim Iraq was not a declared war, but from a military law standpoint, it was considered war.
The thing is, if they Army had hit him with Article 106, he would likely have begged for a plea bargain down to a non-capital 104. He could have turned states evidence against Wikileaks, and been granted a break. Sometimes I wonder why both the military and the federal government no longer even try to use capital spying or treason as a prosecutorial hammer. They should have hit John Walker Lindh with treason. I honestly believe if Lindh had been executed for his crimes, the wimpy Manning would never have tried what he did.
From the Army Times article's descriptions of his outbursts, his behavior is completely consistent with the behavior of either a person with a personality disorder, or a schizophrenic. It simply is not the behavior of a normal person, not even an antisocial or immature person. What is clear is that after the first demonstration of such behavior, he should have had his clearance pulled, and the process of discharging him from the Army should have been initiated.
Please note that I have not said that I think he should get off for reason of insanity. Rather, I think that an insanity defense is the tactic his defense lawyers will use. If the end result is that he is confined to a mental hospital for the rest of his life rather than prison--then I'm fine with that. He'll be equally miserable.