Far be it from me to argue against violent offenders serving hard time. Of course, I'll try not to think too hard about why a spontaneous-sounding "drug deal gone bad" could ever meet the standards of premeditation required for a 'first-degree murder' attempt conviction. Are all violent offenses and offenders so facilely similar that they should all universally 'serve every day' of every sentence handed down? (Let's not even get into minimum sentencing guidelines that sometimes apply.) 

It just seems like there's some sort of fallacy baked right in here. And this is the guy who is supposed to figure out who to charge and how to prosecute. Scary. Do all DAs fight for society, or do some fight for the advancement of their political careers by applying an intense figuratively brutal brush to their prosecutions? DAs would do well to remember that the public will judge them on more than bare aggressiveness. That's something some of us associate more with a certain sort of pathology.