I can hardly think of a more satisfying outcome to this horrible episode of history than to patiently show that we are more humane than the criminals and to persuade them that what they did was wrong. Society has proven itself to be stronger and better than these women were forty years ago. To extract further retribution from them - even for as beastly a crime as this one - is to sacrifice the higher moral ground. Forty years of imprisonment is a more terrible revenge than even the most grisly execution. Forty years ago these women showed no mercy. They have changed. If we fail to show mercy now, I am afraid it means that we have changed too.