A Tennessee man on Tuesday was sentenced to nearly four years in jail for obtaining classified information and leaking it to a reporter. Daniel Hale, 33, of Nashville, was sentenced on Tuesday to 45 months in prison. Hale pleaded guilty to retention and transmission of national defense information on March 31. “I am here because I stole something that was never mine to take—precious human life,” Hale said during the sentencing hearing. “I couldn’t keep living in a world in which people pretend that things weren’t happening that were. Please, your honor, forgive me for taking papers instead of human lives.” U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady told Hale that he could have taken other actions to raise concerns besides leaking the information, including refusing certain commands or resigning from the military. O’Grady said the sentence, which fell between that sought by Hale and prosecutors, was necessary to deter others from leaking classified …