Jan Wolfe, Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A Washington federal judge has sentenced individuals who stormed Capitol Hill to longer prison terms than prosecutors requested. He said that people should be punished for participating in the unprecedented attack.

In the past week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has imposed sentences ranging from 14 to 45 days on four people who pleaded guilty to unlawful parading and picketing inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6 — a misdemeanor offense.

Chutkan, who spoke at the hearings, stated that participants in violent overthrow of government must face consequences beyond just sitting at home.

Over 650 individuals have been accused of joining the Jan. 6, violence. This was when Republican Donald Trump supporters fought with police and smashed windows to charge through buildings in an effort to reverse his defeat. Over 100 people have already pleaded guilty and 17 of them have been sentenced.

The violence resulted in four deaths, three from police shootings and one of natural causes. The Capitol Police officer, who was attacked by protesters, died on the next day. Later, four police officers involved in the defense and preservation of the Capitol took their lives. Over 100 officers sustained injuries.

Chutkan sentenced to 45 days imprisonment two cousins for breaking the Capitol.

Prosecutors had asked Chutkan to sentence each of the defendants — Robert Bauer of Kentucky, and Edward Hemenway of Virginia — to 30 days in prison.

Chutkan sent Dona Sue of Indiana to two weeks incarceration a day earlier.

Bissey (52), was recommended by the prosecution to serve probation due to her cooperation and early acceptance of responsibility.

Anna Morgan Loyd, Bissey’s friend and accomplice in the crime, was sentenced to three years probation by a different judge.

Chutkan is a former federal defender who was appointed by the former President Barack Obama as a Federal Judiciary Judge. Last week, Chutkan sentenced Matthew Mazzocco (a misdemeanor) to 45 days in jail.

This court hearing was the first occasion that a judge who oversees hundreds of Jan. 6-related prosecutions gave a harsher sentence than the government requested.

Chutkan was not the only judge to question the Justice Department’s handling Jan. 6 of criminal cases.

Beryl Howell is the head judge at the Washington federal court. She suggested that prosecutors are being too permissive in allowing defendants to plead guilty misdemeanor crimes.

Howell claimed that even those facing lower-level charges played a part in “terrorizing Congressmen” in an August hearing.

At a plea hearing the judge asked “Does this government in accepting the petty offence in this instance have any concern for deterrence?”

A Jan. 6 plea agreement has been accepted by no judge.

Nearly all the defendants who have been sentenced to this point pleaded guilty or not to violent misdemeanors. According to the Justice Department, it intends to seek harsher punishments for felonies.

Paul Hodgkins of Florida, who pleaded guilty on one count for obstruction of an official proceeding was sentenced by the Justice Department to an 18 month term. Randolph Moss, U.S. District Judge sent Hodgkins to eight months.