In citing this enlightening Washington Times article on the death penalty, the Transatlantic Intelligencer translates an excerpt on a murder in Ahrensburg from Die Welt:

The two brothers, who were in fact known to be polite and well-behaved, had threatened the teacher in their rage over bad grades [received by the younger brother]. In the end, the elder brother slaughtered the helpless 55-year-old woman, stabbing her ten times in the chest and neck and cold-bloodedly slitting her throat with a 30 centimeter long blade. "This court has never before seen an act of such gravity occasioned by such an insignificant matter," the shocked judge remarked in handing down the sentences last October. The today 22-year-old murderer had himself spoken of "butchering" [the teacher]. His now 19-year-old brother was sentenced to 3 years and 10 months in prison. The 22-year-old to 8 years and 9 months.

Young men are favorites for premeditated murder, like the recent honor killing we had in Germany, because they get light sentences. And, as the number of disenfranchised citizens increases, what power does the social stigma of a conviction hold for your young German?

Meanwhile, the latest e-mail petition, sent around for the benefit of people who want to save the world through correct implementation of their MySpace pages (albeit five years too late), illustrates that dissatisfaction with sentencing is not limited to Germany. Notice how the e-mail petition only gives a few mentions as to how the crime was committed in the UK -- that's because the call for justice, rather than rehabilitation, is 100% American.