I am not restricting myself to looking at the role of judges in a vacuum.  Prosecutors, police, regulators, etc. all make individual decisions that amount to &quot;I will fuck this guy up, because I don&#x27;t like them&quot;.  They typically have absolute immunity in making those decisions - as do judges, actually.  It makes no sense to condemn judges for exercising mercy contrary to the law in one breath, and in another give prosecutors absolute immunity for their charging or investigatory decisions, regardless on what basis they were made.  We evidently wanted a system where no state actor ever faces punishment for any decision they make, and now we have it.