CTL,
1. No one is forcing them to read are back and forth.
2. However, it can lead to a reduction in the sentence. In particular, it can be , in states that have the death penalty, the difference between that and a prison sentence.
Joseph, one can claim the opposite too. A jury will sympathize with a sob story about someone’s terrible childhood. That, for example, led to the Capeman’s sentence being commuted to life imprisonment, which even hard-nosed Manhattan DA Frank Hogan supported.