Forecasting with Intent
It was a mistake. An accident. You didn't mean for it to happen. Shouldn't that be taken into account?
And it is. As a society, we assess intent when judging actions. Manslaughter isn't murder. Honest mistakes can be forgiven in situations where active malice wouldn't be.
Notably, the consequences of the event are felt even if it is an accident: that harm does not disappear because someone is sorry or has messed up. We still need to come to terms and learn to move on, if we can. Intent does not entirely ameliorate that.
But intent does matter. Why? Because intent is a predictor of the future. If you attempted to change the universe and failed, odds of you trying again are higher than if you had not intended to attempt in the first place.
If you can determine that someone has legitimately changed their mind, that they are no longer convinced their past actions were reasonable decisions, then you should have more faith in them to make different decisions going forward.