>It was touching to me because it flew in the face of everything we know about life at the time. Rather than stern punishments (send him to the rack!) people were understanding of tragedy and merciful.

In Jeffrey Singman's "The Middle Ages: Everyday Life in Medieval Europe," he makes an interesting point about this - that mercy was fairly common in local rulings (in certain times in certain places) precisely because the punishments were so harsh, which elicited sympathy for the accused. Especially in the case of mitigating circumstances, as you mentioned.