Very light punishment in New York for assault! Our friend's son got 7 years in prison and served 5 years, for a single punch to his girlfriend's face. Girlfriend's father was wealthy with expensive lawyers while the friend's son was poor and couldn't afford a lawyer; but 7 years seemed excessive, considering that some murderers get far less prison time.
Here in the lovely Blue State of Illinois, the average sentence for a first offender on a first degree murder charge is 7 years. Many get far less. This is one of the reasons why Chicago street gangs use 13-year-olds as their trigger men when they plan to kill somebody.
The other is that under Illinois law, they simply are not allowed to keep a juvenile offender in prison past his 21st birthday, for any crime. Even for a mass shooting which could (theoretically) have produced dozens of murder charges. The only avenue for prosecutors is to charge them as adults, and that's subject to a left-wing judge dismissing the charges and insisting that the defendant be charged as a juvenile. Either way, a 13-year-old gets out by his 21st birthday, every time.
I've seen a manslaughter charge, where a drunk driving 17-year-old girl (whose wealthy family hired an excellent lawyer) got PROBATION. The terms of her probation were pretty harsh, but come on, man. She went home to the family mansion, when she should have gone to prison.
There have been literally tens of thousands of cases like this over the years. Blue State lunacy.
I want some sanity in cases like this. The feds need to be able to step in and charge such defendants with federal crimes, that carry mandatory minimum sentences. Unfortunately, current federal laws for violent crimes only protect federal employees and the like.
When the Republicans take control of Congress in January, it should be seen as an opportunity to create some common sense violent crime laws for such offenders.