Sure I concur. But I think people are being sympathetic towards the kid because somehow they identify with having a temper and wanting to act out on it. There is a victim involved here, and a family that is now suffering both emotionally and most likely financially because of the rage of a young man. His family I would assume takes little solace in the fact that "most punches don't kill people". Their pain must be incredible right now, and people bending over backwards to lessen the impact of this CRIME is really astounding to me. Sadly tragedies like these happen everyday across the world, and aren't being scrutinized to a level like this one is. This is unfortanately something that bothers me in the legal system. We spend so much time, money and effort to try to rehabilitate the criminals and wrong doers-and the victims are often marginalized. Sorry, but I emphasize with the family way too much here. Maybe I'm older than most of the GAFfers here, but I identify with the coach here-I try to imagine my wife and daughter trying to come to terms with my senseless death and trying to deal with the ramifications of that-while at the same time, the individual that in a rage, stripped that child's father from her, for the rest of their life...is somehow being protected, and their actions somewhat justified ("he's young, he didn't intend to kill him, just severely hurt him"). Those rationalizations would make the victims family suffer more than they already are. They deserve justice, period. It won't bring the father back-but the fact that justice was served could at least ease their minds a bit more.
