People shouldn't have unjust sentences just because you, DruMAX will not feel safe when they serve their sentences and are legally permitted to come back into society. While there are repeat offenders, there are plenty of people who take their second chances back into society and use them well. If your wife is such an insecure woman that she can't bear the thought of someone who's committed a crime living by you, then your only option is to move.
You can say 8 years is too short of a time blah blah blah, but in reality 8 years is an extremelylong period of time. It's a LONG chunk of time out of a persons life that they'll never get back. Lots of people who commit these crimes do change, and become productive members of society after they serve their time.
In this country, we thankfully hold on to the ideal that most people can change their ways, and we are lenient enough to give people second chances. The only crimes that deserve life imprisonment would be murdering someone, or committing an act of treason against the US Gov. Short of that, people deserve a second chance no matter how horrible the crime was :\