effect means basically in the rage of the moment and has a lot to do with “temporary insanity”. You literally do not know what you are doing / can’t control it AND it is perfectly understandable to any common person that they would have acted the same.
In this case, the perps has been back in the community for close to 10 years - and dad certainly knows this. His actions are not based on anything the perp “just did”. It would be quite difficult to find enough people that would simply exonerate him.
As to whether the perp only deserved a 5 year sentence and early release ... not enough facts in the article. Since dad also attacked a third person does not help his case much.
I am a firm believer in keeping a perp behind bars until
1. he has paid his debt AND
2. he longer poses a threat
if both of those are satisfied, he should be rehabilitated. We don’t do that (anymore) so we will always have theses travesties.
“paying his debt” is a silly concept. If we had slowly roasted the bastard to death it would not have paid anything.
You cannot pay that debt. There is no going back. The only thing you can do is make his punishment horrific and public so that the next sick freak that wants to rape a little girl will suppress those thoughts.
Rehabilitation? No longer poses a threat?
Sure.