Just to add to Alric's good point:

Daredevilpwn, I could argue that the opposite of the Rice story happens quite often (i.e., in many rape cases the victim, a woman, gets blamed because she was "asking" for it -- sort of like Rice's wife is being blamed by some even though she "assaulted" a professional football player at least twice her size who likely would not be hurt by her attacks, and could probably kill her with a gesture), but there is no point, because I am not sure that conflating being nice to women or favoring them in a blame game with the fall of men's power is quite valid. Indeed, the opposite may be the case:

Being gentle with women has been a tenet of patriarchies for centuries -- consider the Arthurian code of chivalry as this attitude's fictional ideal. When men were at the height of their power, women were the "weaker, fairer" sex, the people who needed to be taken care of, defended, supported, and venerated by men. Yes, much of this was probably done as part of the formula for keeping them down, but it was still done. Condemning Ray Rice, (especially because that condemning happened after the world found out, and not right out of the chutes) is I think more a sign of the patriarchy being alive and well in the NFL (which it is) than it is the opposite.... also, if I can recall, neither of these people were charged with a crime, so weren't they being treated equally by the actual authorities?

Therefore, I do think that "a society that gives women lower sentences for crimes they committed, excuses a woman's poor behavior, and even lets a woman get away with attempted murder" is very much a patriarchy, because the men in charge are cutting breaks for people who they perceive are beneath them, and in their care. Think about it: would a matriarchal society cut women breaks like that, or would they do the opposite, since in a matriarchy all things would be the responsibility of women? I would imagine that female criminals would fare about as well as male criminals do now.

tl;dr: The Ray Rice story may actually be a prime example of patriarchal behavior -- treating women better in spite of what the law says is exactly what a patriarchal society would do.