25 years is a long time, but in some cases, not long enough

Steven Masters and Jodi Thomas began dating on Valentine's Day, 1976. They were engaged on Valentine's Day two years later. And on Valentine's Day, 1979, Steven Masters murdered Jodi Masters, his wife of just five months.
Now, just a little more than 25 years later, Steven Masters, who was found guilty of murder and arson and sentenced to consecutive terms of life in prison and 6 years to 25 years on the two counts, is about to be free.
It is difficult to see the justice in that.
Masters, at 45, will be in a position to take up the life of a middle-aged man. His family, which supported his bid for parole, is pleased. The family of Jodi Thomas is left to wonder what might have been.
Five years ago, Joy Thomas, Jodi's mother, speaking of the possibility of Masters' parole said simply but eloquently of his sentence, "Life means life." Of course, it doesn't, at least not under the law. The law allows for parole, even for lifers. And perhaps there would have been some sense of justice if the Steven Masters leaving prison this fall were a much older man.
Or perhaps there would have been a sense of justice if the murder of Jodi Masters had been less brutal, less callous, less senseless.
Those who argued before the Ohio Parole Board for Masters' parole said he is a better person today than he was 25 years ago. We should hope so.
In 1979, he was man who so thoroughly dominated his young wife, that he allowed her only an hour to spend with her family on Christmas Day. Before murdering his wife, he scribbled out plans for what he would do with the insurance money when she was dead.
As an exclamation point to his callousness, he chose Valentine's Day -- a special day for the couple -- as the day he would buy his bullets. That night, he shot his young wife five times. He poured an accelerant over her body and set it afire. As the fire took hold, he went to a Laundromat to establish his alibi -- he even had the gall to tell investigators he did the laundry as a Valentine's Day gift to his wife -- and then he masqueraded as a grieving husband.
Is he a better person today than he was 25 years ago? This young, selfish, brutal murderer, corpse abuser and liar had nowhere to go but up.
All of which makes his relative goodness irrelevant.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction says Masters has been a model prisoner, never in trouble. He has taken courses to educate himself and has helped other prisoners to educate themselves. And with that, the state of Ohio has decided that Steven Masters' debt to society has been paid in full.
Perhaps Steven Masters has been rehabilitated. Perhaps he is today a better person than he was in 1980 when he was sentenced. That day, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of his guilt, he continued to maintain his innocence. He told the court, "I think the verdict just adds to the tragedy of error that this whole case has been about. I still maintain my innocence and I think the 12 [jurors] can be mistaken."
There is no evidence that Masters' conviction added to a tragedy of errors. There is ample reason to believe that his release, however, adds to the tragedy of Jodi Masters' murder and that the parole board is mistaken.
The murderer may have been rehabilitated by 25 years in prison. But the law should provide not only for rehabilitation, but for adequate punishment. Masters has been punished, and punished severely, but not at a level that yet equals the pain he caused Jodi Thomas Masters and her family.