I've dealt with crime including serious crime involving members of my own family, and my views haven't changed. I don't base important beliefs solely on emotion but on principles as well. If you're interested - google Janine Balding.
As a matter of fact, felon are typically denied the right to vote, hold some jobs, and in some cases drink alcohol. From here one out, I say reduce their sentences when they commit more crimes. After all, they weren’t “ready” to be responsible for certain rights.
The situation isn't equivalent. They lost their 'adult' rights by their actions. Adolescents have never been granted them. Nor do I believe they should be.
I think you are probably a decent person. I also think you think you are a wonderfully moral person. Unfortunately like a lot of liberals (in general terms), you have obviously not thought through completely the logic of what you are saying.
Wonderfully moral? Not particularly. My level of morality is nothing I consider unusual and my position isn't based on a belief that I hold any type of moral high ground. It's based on the belief that we can't deny people rights on the grounds of irresponsibility, and then hold them to be fully responsible when it suits us.
I don't believe in being soft on crime either. I think courts typically treat adolescents far too leniently - but we go from one extreme to the other when we let them get away almost unpunished for minor crimes - and then drop the heavens on them when it becomes major.
Forgive me for not Googling your loss. My own best friend was brutally murdered. I was the best man at his wedding, and we both worked at the top of 1 WTC until the summer of 2001, when we moved our office a block and a half south. So I'm familiar with the subject as well. I started a thread on the crime if your interested. The perp is still at large. I'll FReepmail you a keyword if you think you can help.
I'm not sure what the rest of your point is. The beneficiaries of a sentence are society and the victim. Any rehabilitation of the the creep who comitted the crime. I have comitted two crimes in my life one when I was younger, one of a white collar nature. I can promise you that in both cases I thought what I got was unfair. Both were two lenient.