Then they should have thought about that before they decided to commit a crime. Life is about choices and consequences, and being overly permissive with those who have no qualms about breaking the law leads to a sick society where those who do actually follow the law are the ones who suffer.
We aren't talking about the individual person here, we are talking about the macro effect of this type of enforcement. Obviously having the severe penalty did not stop this particular person from committing the crime; the question is, how many people DID it stop, and is the number of people it stopped worth the cost?
No one is trying to defend the person, just trying to reason about what is best for our society as a whole.
