As unjust as this sentencing clearly is, it’s pretty typical of criminal cases in which defendants “flip” on co-conspirators in return for enormously reduced consequences. The practice is universal on federal and state levels.

While prosecutors are often able to go after bigger fish this way, winning convictions they might not have otherwise, the system is ripe for abuse.

Sometimes, co-conspirators lie about the extent of the involvement of the person they testify against. They have every incentive to do that. And in this case, someone with a tremendous amount of personal responsibility for terrible crimes gets off with a slap on the wrist.

I think we need to closely examine how we do criminal justice in this country. We clearly have a lot of problems with it.