When Calon Hatchett was sentenced to 47 years in prison for a shooting spree that left two people dead and two others permanently scarred, almost everyone in the courtroom agreed that justice would continue to be lacking.

Hatchett, 21, left a trail of devastation in Minneapolis after murdering Ali Reed and Tonia Powell and attempting to kill two others within a month last year. Their loved ones say their pain has been compounded by an indifferent justice system that allowed a rushed plea deal at the last minute.

Judge Paul Scoggin listened to the victims and families of Reed, 26, and Powell, 30, tell him how the murders had destroyed their lives, how they could no longer smile, leave the house, and be happy with their surviving children. They told him that Hatchett had shown no remorse and grinned in court with a tattoo of the word “Reaper” across his neck. They told Scoggin to reject the plea agreement offered by the Hennepin County District Attorney’s Office.

On August 7, Hatchett entered into a plea agreement to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, just as his criminal trial was about to begin jury selection.

Before announcing the verdict, Scoggin Hatchett explained to the victims in the gallery that attorneys on both sides were tasked with assessing the risk and making their decisions on that basis, rather than on the basis of the “moral culpability of the defendant and the devastating magnitude of the loss.”

“Is this the way a court system should work?” Scoggin asked. “I don’t know.”

Hennepin County Assistant District Attorney Jake Fischmann said at the start of the hearing, “I don’t want anyone in the courtroom to think that the state or law enforcement in this case did not understand that the time remaining for Mr. Hatchett is not going to be enough.”

Hatchett sat quietly in an orange jumpsuit, his head tilted slightly back, as the victims’ statements were read.