“I feel for them so strongly...,” she said, trailing off in tears.
A lawyer himself, Pring-Wilson’s father Rusty Wilson noted that criminal justice is not best served by retribution.
“There’s no help to society by just putting a person into prison, on probation he can do things, he said. “There’s no need for revenge.”
Defense attorney Ann Kaufman’s eyes were bloodshot when she completed her tearful character assessment.
“He has lived in anguish” she said. “He’s been in therapy every week in agony. There isn’t a single conversation we’ve ever had with him where he does not start to cry.”
Kaufman said throughout the trial, Pring-Wilson’s friends and family spoke of the defendant as if he were “Gandhi.”
And she stressed that probation would be punishment enough.
“He’s not going to be able to vote, to be a lawyer, to hold a position at a college,” she said. “And he accepts that.”
—Robin M. Peguero contributed to the reporting of this story. —Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.