Third party hardship is not a mitigating factor but a request for mercy. The accused bears the burden of establishing the factual substratum on the balance of probabilities, but the conclusion whether the circumstances are 'exceptional' is a matter of fact and degree, reviewable on appeal only on the basis of whether the conclusion was reasonably open. In drug trafficking cases, parity assessments must account for the offender's role in the supply chain, the purity-adjusted quantity of drugs trafficked, the period of offending, and the profit motive, not merely the gross quantity trafficked.
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