Being Donald Trump means never having to say you’re sorry.

Ever notice how many of our prisons are called “correctional facilities” or “penitentiaries”? That’s no accident. We want those who break the law to repent; we want them to be “corrected,” not just incarcerated; we want them to repent, not just serve out a punishment.

There’s nothing our judicial systems likes less than an unrepentant convict.

Donald Trump has been convicted of 34 felony charges. His immediate, utterly predictable, response: the court was rigged. No penitence, no regret, no reform, no correction.

Just as predictable — but more disappointing — was the response of some of the journalists and pundits covering the trial. Between the time that it was announced that a verdict had been reached and the actual reading of the verdict half an hour later, pundits were already speculating wildly about the potential effects on the polls:

Will Republican voters be less likely to vote for him? Maybe some will be galvanized to vote him? How will Biden react? And isn’t this just another fundraising opportunity for the Trump campaign?

Instead of trying to figure out who is more or less likely to vote for this felon, perhaps we could spend a little time thinking about what happened here, and what it says about him.

Why was he found guilty? Not because his shifty lawyer flipped on him. Not because the DA provided a “good narrative.” But because the prosecutors unearthed a mountain of evidence that showed conclusively that Trump had broken the law.

Let me say it again: a mountain of evidence demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump had broken the law.

Along the way, we learned again that Donald Trump is utterly devoid of anything resembling a moral compass.

• He cheated on his wife with a pornstar
• He had an affair with a Playboy model while his wife was pregnant.
• He hired one of the shiftiest lawyers in America to be his “Roy Cohn.”
• He colluded with the publisher of one of the most disgusting rags in the American press to smear his political opponents.
• He colluded with that same publisher to suppress damaging information about himself.
• He paid a fortune to silence these women.
• He lied about paying a fortune to silence these women.
• He lied about what he said to his shifty lawyer.
• He waged a scorched-earth war against that shifty lawyer when that lawyer decided to put his own interests before Trump’s.
• He deliberately broke elections finance laws.

He’s a felon.

He’s also a relentless liar, a serial slanderer, a sexual assaulter, a tax cheat, and the leader of a conspiracy to destroy our democracy.

The jury did the right thing. They paid attention.

In contrast to the defendant, who slept through parts of his own trial; they weighed the evidence, in contrast to the members of the GOP who dropped in to bend the knew; and they came to a clear, unanimous verdict based on the overwhelming evidence of Trump’s criminal conduct.

The pundits did the wrong thing: they speculated.

What they should have done is ask the obvious question: why does this man never ever have to say sorry? Part of the answer to that question is so few of the commentators are willing to slow down and weigh the evidence and assess the man. And that does a terrible disservice to the public.

Trump is not done with this, of course. On July 11, he’ll be back in court, facing Justice Merchan, who will pronounce sentence. And when he does, I hope he does what is usually done to defendants who refuse to accept responsibility: throw the book at him.