Every consequence that ever fell on them fell through a court, on the record, decided by a judge, according to the law, with them given every chance to defend themselves that the law allows.

And I did this not out of gentleness toward them, of which I had none, but out of respect for the difference between justice and revenge.

Revenge is a thing you do to someone.

Justice is a thing a society does, in the open, by rules that apply to everyone.

I wanted my mother to be able to say, for the rest of her life, that what happened to the people who wronged her was not her daughter’s vengeance but the plain and lawful consequence of their own choices.

That distinction mattered to me more than any satisfaction I might have taken from doing it myself.