They have broken into a woman's house without asking her, doing so on the grounds of Justice. Mrs. Phillips responds: "But Mrs. Hale, the law is the law." Mrs. Hale half-heartedly acquiesces: "I s'pose 'tis."

As Mrs. Wright's former exuberant character is evoked and the contrast to her consequent dismal experiences made clear, Mrs. Peter's adherence to the law is shaken and she refrains from impeding her friend from destroying the clues:

MRS. PETERS

Oh, what are you doing, Mrs. Hale?

MRS. HALE [Mildly.]

Just pulling out a stitch or two that's not sewed very good. [Threading a needle.] Bad sewing always made me fidgety.

MRS. PETERS [Nervously.]

I don't think we ought to touch things.

MRS. HALE

I'll just finish up this end. [Suddenly stopping and leaning forward.]

Later on, when discovering the dead bird, Mrs. Peters reflects on her childhood experience of a boy killing her own pet with a hatchet. She instinctively realizes that had she been there at that moment nothing would have stopped her from hurting him and, possibly, whether intentionally or not, killing him.

There was no difference then between her and Mrs. Wright. And more so, Mrs. Wright had had to endure long and drawn out years of unbearable loneliness and anguish from a husband who moment after moment, day after day without respite...

Wasn't that a sort of killing?
Says Mrs. Pieter: "The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale."

Mrs. Hale however reflects on the former Minnie Foster who "wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir and sang."

Looking around the depressing and discomfiting room she remarks that her husband's deeds were a crime of a different order too -- probably just as severe. Who could judge… and who would punish that

Both women realize that there are different orders of crimes. That occasionally, it is hard to pronounce something or someone as guilty when they may have been driven to act in a certain way out of desperation or fervor for their lives. Justice and concepts of justice may be shady and unclear. Recognizing the duress of Mrs. Wright and the brutality of her husband, the women conspired to shield Mrs. Wright. Ironically, one of them happens to be the Sheriff's wife. Married to the law, this may be symbolism of the fact that she illustrates another aspect of the law. Sometimes, the law has to be more relaxed and forgiving in its claims for situations may demand enhanced commiseration and understanding. "The women," as the essay (Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature) observes, "decide that their humanistic idea of justice outweighs the men's dogmatic reading of the law." The sheriff may have been unable to recognize that. The women understood.