By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Outgoing Missouri Governor Matt Blunt did his homework when considering commuting the sentences of two women who have served a total of 26 years for killing men who had severely abused and terrorized them.

Blunt's office looked at statements from jurors, law enforcement officers and, in one instance, another former spouse who said one of the murdered men had severely abused her as well.

The governor was right to commute the sentences of Stacey Lannert and Charity Carey.

Lannert endured years of sexual abuse by her father before she killed him when she was 18 years. A judge instructed jurors not to use the abuse as a mitigating factor. Why not?

Carey was sentenced to 30 years for the murder of her husband, a severe penalty considering she, too, could document years of abuse.

Examples of justice as capricious as these points out the value of the commutation privilege.

More details can be found in this Associated Press story.