In November 2007, Rafael Robb, a one-time economics professor at Penn, pleaded guilty to voluntarily bludgeoning his wife, Ellen, to death with a chin-up bar after the couple argued about their daughter’s vacation plans.

As the crime was considered an act of rage, not premeditated murder, Robb received a voluntary manslaughter charge that carried a penalty of 5 to 10 years in prison.

At the sentencing, the judge presiding over the trial, Paul Tressler, told Robb and his defense attorneys that he was receiving the standard-lengthed sentence because of a letter he had written to his daughter demanding she mail him a picture of herself and her report card.

The Daily Pennsylvanian explains:

Frank DeSimone, Robb's attorney, told The Philadelphia Inquirer he filed a motion for reconsideration because he felt Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Paul Tressler did not understand the motive of a letter Robb sent to his 14-year old daughter, Olivia.

In the letter, which Olivia received the day before Robb's Nov. 19 sentencing, Robb told Olivia she would not receive holiday presents if she did not send him a picture of herself and her report card.

According to Robb’s defense attorneys, Judge Tressler misunderstood the meaning of the letter. And so, they want to appeal his decision and, hopefully, secure a lighter sentence.

Letter or not, Robb still admitted to murdering his wife, and he’s getting off relatively lightly already with a voluntary manslaughter charge.

He should be grateful, not pressing his luck.