Is it gender bias, a good-looks discount, and/or the virtues (or vices?) of jury sentencing?

In this new post, Eugene Volokh flags an interesting case from Texas in which a jury convicted Traci Rhode (pictured here) of murdering her husband, but then sentenced her to probation.  Here are the basic details of the crime and sentencing from this local article (with paragraphs reordered below):

[Traci Rhode] maintained her innocence throughout the trial, claiming Scott Rhode shot himself in their bedroom while she showered after a morning walk.
The prosecutors counter that Traci awoke at about 5 a.m. on Oct. 15, 2003, and shot her husband with a .45-caliber handgun while he slept….

The jury that convicted the Fort Madison, Iowa, native of killing her husband in their Brownsville home four years ago also set her free Thursday, to the delight of her lawyer and the dismay of local prosecutors. “I am ecstatic with the jury’s assessment of probation,” said her lawyer, Ernesto Gamez.  “It literally legitimizes and justifies their verdict because deep down inside they had a very tough decision to make.”

It took jurors two days to deliver their guilty verdict and another three days to sentence Rhode to 10 years supervised release. Judge Ben Euresti tacked on a $10,000 fine to her punishment and she was released from the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center within a few hours.

Eugene comments: “This is pretty puzzling to me; the jury convicted, which means they didn’t buy the defense’s “husband shot himself” theory.  But if the wife deliberately killed him, what’s the basis for the probation sentence for a deliberate murderer?”  And commentators respond with a variety of viable theories, though this related local article about evidence presented to the jury at the sentencing stage provides additional grist for the speculation mill:

Shane Rhode pleaded with jurors Monday to set his mother free. “I want my mom to come home,” he said and reminded the court that she is the only parent left to him and his two siblings. Shane’s mother, Traci Rhode was found guilty in the murder of the 15-year-old’s father, Scott Rhode.  “I want her to come home because I love her,” a tearful Nicholas Rhode, 14, added during a dramatic sentencing phase that continued into the evening.

Of course, in the wake of Blakely, I wonder if readers of this blog think this case shows the virtues or the vices of having juries involved in non-capital sentencing determinations.