[superchroma]

Yes I know they are free to do that but that doesn't mean that it's fair.

[thaumasiotes]

Well, I'd agree; the fact that that's allowed is an obvious miscarriage of justice.

But it's also how the system is explicitly supposed to work; it doesn't make for a strong "facts-based" argument for clemency.

[vkou]

Is it?

There's two angles to justice. The legal, and the moral.

What was done to him was legal, and nobody's denying that.

Given the scope of the crimes he was convicted for, I don't think it was immortal to throw the entire book at him, to the maximum possible legal extent.