When will a defendant's sentence for assault be reduced if the victim's family members have been bereaved?

Bereavement of the victim's family. We agree with defendant that this factor could not properly be relied on to aggravate his sentence because it bears no rational relationship to his degree of culpability. Although a sentencing court is not confined to the aggravating factors listed in rule 421, the factors it chooses to rely on must be "reasonably related to the decision being made." (People v. Bloom, supra, 142 Cal.App.3d 310, 321, 140 Cal.Rptr. 857; rule 408.) The purpose of sentencing is to punish defendants in accordance with their level of culpability. We think it obvious that a defendant's level of culpability depends not on fortuitous circumstances such as the composition of his victim's family, but on circumstances over which he has control. A defendant may choose, or decline, to premeditate, to act callously, to attack a vulnerable victim, to commit a crime while on probation, or to amass a

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