Hardly a crime

“JIHAD JOHNNY” SOON FLIES FREE

“American Taliban” John Walker Lindh started as a hip-hop critic and wannabe Malcom X.

“He was a soldier in the Taliban,” the jihadist’s attorney James Brosnahan helpfully clarified. “He did it for religious reasons. He did it as a Muslim, and history overcame him,” with deadly consequences.

Being a foreign mercenary is not a crime.  The Taliban was not at war with the US until the US attacked and captured John Lindh.

At that point, John committed a crime by supporting in the uprising and not surrendering:

After being detained, Lindh first said that he was Irish. While being interviewed by the CIA, he did not reveal that he was American.^[10][18][22] Spann asked Lindh, "Are you a member of the IRA?" He was asked this question because, when questioned by Spann, an Iraqi in the group identified Lindh as an English speaker. Lindh had been told to say he was "Irish" in order to avoid problems.^[22] Moments later, around 11 am, the makeshift prison was the scene of a violent Taliban uprising, which became known as the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi. Spann and hundreds of foreign fighters were killed; only 86 prisoners survived. According to other detainees interviewed by the journalist Robert Young Pelton for CNN, Lindh was fully aware of the planned uprising, yet remained silent and did not cooperate with the Americans.^[22][23] 

But consider the moments later incident.  It looks like they got one or two somewhat deceptive responses, then the uprising.  Then:

Sometime during the initial uprising, Lindh was shot in the right upper thigh and found refuge in a basement, hiding with a group of Arab, Uzbek, and Pakistani detainees.

This is a difficult prosecution, there was barely an interaction before Spann was shot. Then John is stuck in the uprising.  Spann controls the interview, John is the prisoner, the interview is hardly past identification when the uprising happened. John may very well have planned to reveal the plot, but the plotters knew this too.  The real evidence that John uprose against American troops is shaky at best. Up until the interview, he was a legal foreign mercenary, and his regiment had surrendered. This should have been a one year sentence.