people typically serve 1/3 of their sentence. don't ask me whatever happened to "truth in sentencing".
I didn't follow a single day of this trial, so I am completely ignorant of the evidence. however, any public defender should have made one or more of the following arguments:
- The shooter was intoxicated and was simply trying to intimidate Zimmerman, not assassinate him.
- The shooter has a (relatively) clean record up til that point
- The media inflamed tensions over Zimmerman, leading to 1,000 threats against him a day, at one point.
- The shooter is willing to "forever" surrender his right to own a gun, and enter a substance abuse program, and undertake 2,000 hours of community service in order to spare the state the financial burden of incarcerating him for decades.