Does one suppose the judge might feel differently if it had been his own 7 year old daughter who was the victim?
"Does one suppose the judge might feel differently if it had been his own 7 year old daughter who was the victim?"
Frankly, I am afraid the answer to this question might well be "no". After all, hizzonor is patently stupid and self-centered. Because, really, what he has said is that his feelings on punishment trump all else - the law, common sense, his professional responsibility, society's needs, the ends of justice, etc. Ego-centric idiot. Only thing you can do with this kind of stupidity is try to remove it from the gene pool.