A terribly sad story. Two young and idealistic lawyers, get wrapped up in the BLM protest movement. In a moment of madness they throw a Molotov cocktail into an abandoned police car and burn it. Now they face a minimum 35 years in a federal prison. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/lawyers-arrested-molotov-cocktail-nyc-protest.html

Most people, even good ones, do something stupid sometime. When that results in the ruining of their otherwise good and productive lives, it’s tragic. I have seen it many times. In legal systems like ours it can be mitigated, but in the US with harsh minimum sentences it can not.

Every time you got drunk and mooned someone, you made yourself guilty of indecent exposure, when you drove drunk, it’s only your good fortune you didn’t kill someone and went to jail for five years.

Yo, people are harsh. So many supporters of hangings, amputations and lengthy prison sentences.
Me, I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. I have defended murderers and child abusers and I have never found mercy to be inappropriate.