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Do you not believe there can be mitigating circumstances based upon someones background?
Here in New Zealand 52% of prison inmates are Maori. 18% of our population are Maori.
More than 60% of our prison inmates are functionally illiterate.
Sexual assault including choking someone to the point of nearly passing out does not have any such mitigating circumstances.
Millions of people live in much more dire conditions and do not commit such heinous crimes.
I think if you have a situation where it is provable that the accused was routinely discriminated against or harmed due to their race an argument could be made for leniency. I don't think choosing to go to a university in an all white town qualifies. If he didn't like the school he could have transferred elsewhere. I don't know the details but considering this school is across the country from where his parents live I would imagine he went there because he got a free ride to play football for them. He chose to go there. He chose to live across the country from his family and in an practically all white community with no immigrants.
I also think it is dependent on the offense. If someone who grew up in poverty and lacks education is convicted of stealing or selling drugs maybe you could make an argument their circumstances led to desperation but I don't think this should come into play when the crime inflicts significant physical harm on others.
St fx literally has programs designed for creating a welcoming environment for African immigrants on exchange
Seems like relevant evidence for sentencing, wonder why it wasn't considered
Nova Scotia is extra lib
Unfortunately, I think this is the inevitable result of secular legal theories that find no transcendent basis for human moral responsibility. If we are all merely the deterministic products of our environment, then how can moral responsibility be anything but conditional on said environment?
Unless this trajectory is changed, expect to see more and more legal theories blaming parents, blaming schools, blaming society, blaming anything but the individual for the crimes done by the individual.