That's because you don't hear the devotees of St. Pollard the Putupon clamoring to reduce Hanssen's sentence. There's no such thing as a "harmless" spy against the United States, which is why Pollard will die in his U.S. prison cell, just like Hanssen.
Lol. No, I don't expect it would be Pollard devotees clamoring for that, it would be Hanssen devotees. But for all that - wanna bet that they won't turn up when the case is a few years old? How long was the Hanssen sentence, btw?
There's no such thing as a "harmless" spy against the United States
Bah. Spying goes on all the time, and it's even an "accepted" part of international relations. The US spies, Israel spies, Belgium spies, Britain spies - you get the drift. They all spy on both friends and enemies, and generally nothing whatsoever happens to a caught spy except deportation or exchange.
If shooting spies became in fashion, we'd have a bloodbath.