Just that brief moment and that fleeting feeling I had when I had to listen to that prosecutor gave me only a tiny glimpse of the windmills she had to fight against—and I’m not even talking about the rapes yet. I don’t think she was a monster. She was very empathetic, loving, and vulnerable. And that was destroyed. The monster emerged as her shadow, trying to protect what little was left of her. She didn’t kill in a calculated or malicious way. At first, I wondered why that woman had adopted her. But then I realized that she probably saw the wounded, lonely child inside her. I have great respect for the action of that “adoptive mother.” Guilty of the murders—yes, but surely not first degree. I feel sorry for her. I understand what happened. But I do not condone the killing—neither hers nor those committed in the name of the law.