The US is a jigsaw of different legal jurisdictions with varying laws, legal standards and sentencing practices. A crime in one state with a life sentence might not even be a crime in another. I know this is a federal case, but it seems unlikely the case of the homeless person was too.
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> Using an existing injustice in the US to defend another does not make it right.
While that is true, it is also true that the law must be fairly enforced on everyone. Having some people receive lighter sentences for similar-in-intent but larger-in-scale crimes is not fair enforcement.