You reminded us that Justice should be tempered with Mercy, that our best legal precepts still work: Innocent until proven guilty, mitigating circumstances, punishments that fit the crimes.
The lawyers made clear that if the government sought the death penalty against Mr. Ghailani, they planned to argue that the sites should be a mitigating factor against capital punishment, "because of what they had done to him" there, Mr. Quijano said.
Almost all answered no, saying they would listen to mitigating evidence and consider alternative punishment.
But it added it had granted Hogg a "40% reduction" in his punishment to "account for mitigating factors, including the player's remorse for the incident both on the day of the match and subsequently through the media".
Historically, outgoing presidents have often invoked this power in the last days of their terms — at times on behalf of people who've committed reprehensible acts — under the premise that mitigating circumstances outweigh the rationale for punishment.
Ahmed Salah, a member of the Nour Party's Supreme Committee, stressed the rarity of such punishments, and said that mitigating circumstances were taken into account.
In Connecticut, no death penalty can be imposed if jurors find certain mitigating circumstances that state law declares to prohibit capital punishment.
In the light of the "mitigating circumstances", the MPs did not propose any punishment beyond recommending that Smith should apologise to the Commons.
The hearing did accept there were mitigating factors taken into consideration before they decided on their punishment.
