Judge Questions Long Sentence in Drug Case

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...The sentence was all the more ironic, he said, because only two hours earlier he had been legally able to impose a sentence of 22 years on a man convicted of aggravated second-degree murder for beating an elderly woman to death with a log. That crime, he argued, was far more serious.

If this judge was so upset by being obligated to impose a mandatory sentence on the drug dealer, why then, did he only impose a 22 year term on the murderer just because he was legally 'able' to? I take that to mean that he was able to impose a longer sentence too, but he chose not to.