Re: Contrition is a religious concept,
I think you don't get it. The point of the justice system is to get people to act legally. There were plenty of ways to report the flaw without sending private user data to the press. It was even possible to publicly embarrass the company by revealing the flaw without actually leaking private user data. So Weev broke the law without any proper justification, not even that of being a whistleblower. Satire is protected free speech, but lulz is not.
In that case, the job of the justice system is to first, point out that this is illegal, and second, to deter people from doing it. When the accused is proudly admitting breaking the law and claiming it is the right thing to do, the justice system has to make it especially clear that no, it is not. And the more the accused insists on advertising his claims, the harsher the justice system has to be.
It is not about forced humiliation. Here, just shutting up would have been preferable.