Not sure how things are in the US, but I know from german court proceedings that judges absolutely do take context into account and acknowledge mitigating circu

Not sure how things are in the US, but I know from german court proceedings that judges absolutely do take context into account and acknowledge mitigating circumstances. This may not result in an acquittal, but it may lead to a (sometimes drastically) lower sentence. The point is that the law must give judges the options to do so, i.e. by defining a range of different punishments instead of insisting of some fixed minimum punishment.