Do you feel he will still be a threat after seven years? Do you think a longer sentence would make him safer to the community he would eventually be released in? Do you think he should ever be released?

deed, extenuating circumstance, or his reason (or lack of it) for committing the deed is my guess.

A teen who has been attacked in a horrific manner, and subjected to hate that absolutely no one should have to be. Who knows if they'll be able to overcome what they've now had to go through, are going through.

Another teen going to jail for much of his young adult life, who on return to society will be poorly adjusted and much more likely to commit crime.

I don't know. I don't want to see him get away without punishment. In an attack like this, as vicious as it was, it deserves some prison time. But how much? Wouldn't an intensive therapy/rehabilitation program be more effective, more beneficial to society in the long run? How much will jail teach him, and how much will it teach him that it shouldn't?

I often hate people like him. I wish I didn't, and I work not to, for what good it does. I wish I could be like the mother in this story, but I'm not. I have a hard time forgiving people when they hurt others with purpose. It's very difficult for me to understand how someone could knowingly do things like that to another human being. There's no way for them to explain to me that they didn't know what they were doing. In many ways, I want to see him locked up for a long time.

But he's 17. He'll be getting out when he's 24. His life is probably over, for the most part. And that makes me sad, despite what I think of him. I have little pity for him, though, and maybe I should.

And on the other side, there is a person who is now scarred for the rest of their life, both physically and mentally. There is an untold amount of damage to them and their family. I am thankful and have much admiration for his parents. I am not that good of a person. I hope that eventually they are all able to heal in the ways they need to.

The whole thing brings me nothing but sorrow.

... pretty much how I feel.

In a case like this you have to wonder, did the perp really not get that he was going to cause serious injury? It is possible that he is that dumb, lots of people are.

But that is not in any way an excuse. The article says his 7 years might be reduced to 5 if he behaves. Maybe he will learn something from it all.