Reply #16: Hmm, well I don't know then. On one hand it seems fair to

[blonndee]

make them "consecutive," on the other it seems like the judge ought to at least be able to consider mitigating circumstances, like, did all the crimes occur within a certain period of time when, say, the guy was a meth addict or whatever? I'm not saying that exCUSES the crime, but that people often behave as they normally wouldn't under certain life circumstances and perhaps are more able to be rehabilitated (again, whatever that really means) than might others.

I'm also just not sure that these long, extended sentences are really the answer to such kinds of crime. And I really do have a problem with "mandatory" anything when it comes to punishment, unless maybe it's violent crime.

What do you think?