[artichokegrower]

Mr. Lee’s motive for setting the fire is a foremost issue. Mr. Lee credibly states that he was in the streets to protest unlawful police violence against black men, and there is no basis to disbelieve this statement. Mr. Lee, appropriately, acknowledges that he ‘could have demonstrated in a different way,’ but that he was ‘caught up in the fury of the mob after living as a black man watching his peers suffer at the hands of police,'” the memo stated.

Living here in ultra liberal California I could get “caught up in the fury” every now and then> The DOJ has to remember that this honorable man burned someone to death.

[Albion Wilde]

should get a lesser sentence because he was “caught up in the fury”

Sounds more like he was caught up in the "accessory after the fact."