Nobody in this thread is defending rapists. The dynamic involved in this thread is EXACTLY the same as if a couple guys held up a liquor store and those of us who acknowledged that's what they'd done and that them getting 5 years in prison was maybe on the light end but not totally insane, were then called horrible, heartless bastards for denying that they'd robbed an orphanage and shot all the nuns and kids dead in the process, and that we were pieces of shit for not agreeing they should get the death penalty.
We are asking people to control their emotions, look at what actually happened, and keep that in mind plus disregard the suicide, when forming an opinion about their punishment. As well as consider where our society is at and what might be contributing to this kind of stuff going down so often.
In 1950 you would find a culture which was very clear on the fact that teenagers shouldn't be having mixed gender, unsupervised parties with alcohol, drugs, and sex. Nowadays, we may still have laws against those things, but our culture has lost its moral clarity and authority and that has an impact.
We also have this odd schizophrenic attitude about females now. We say that they should be treated exactly like men, but we still view them as damsels with no personal agency or accountability. Nobody here would have a moment's hesitation declaring a boy who got blackout drunk and then had pictures of his wang being messed with as his friends drew dicks and vulgarities on him, to be a dumbass who should make better choices and also they'd probably view him more as the victim of a gross prank than a sexual assault.
I totally agree 30 days is way too low. I totally agree what they did is awful, and her killing herself is horribly tragic.
But adults need to be able to discuss sensitive subjects without it turning into a contest of who can be the most outraged and who can turn their thought process over to emotions the most thoroughly.