The views expressed here are entirely my own, although I have cleared them with Alexander Blackman’s wife, Claire, and his QC. Five of the country’s most senior judges have it in their power to show mercy to former Royal Marine Sergeant Alexander Blackman when they sentence him for manslaughter with diminished responsibility on Tuesday. At last Friday’s hearing, they indicated they had already shown clemency by reducing his sentence for murder from a minimum term of ten years to eight in 2014. However, that was for murder, a verdict quashed after three top psychiatrists unanimously agreed that Mr Blackman was suffering from a mental illness, namely a combat stress disorder, when he shot the fatally wounded insurgent in Afghanistan in 2011. This terrorist was moments from death anyway when the sergeant encountered him, and certain to die in any event, according to the country’s top pathologist. The circumstances surrounding this case are unique and create no precedent and are unlikely ever to be repeated again. We heard in court that Mr Blackman was a heroic and exemplary soldier, his record only blotted once (if at all) by the killing of this insurgent. Let’s not forget that this insurgent was no different to the terrorist who caused carnage on Westminster Bridge on Wednesday, before fatally stabbing PC Keith Palmer. Warped and twisted hatred drives them to commit crimes we simply cannot comprehend, and the only people who stand between them and us are brave men like PC Palmer and Mr Blackman. Finally, what on earth would it achieve by keeping Mr Blackman in jail? This former Royal Marine has spent nearly three and half years in prison already. He has paid a terrible price for serving his country, to the point where something inside him just snapped. We owe him a debt of gratitude and I sincerely hope and pray this will be sensibly reflected by our top judges on Tuesday morning. I believe all decent and right-thinking people in this country will be outraged if it is otherwise.