Tightening The Noose

Another throw of the dice.
"If you go through with this," Sheriff Cole spoke quietly, "You'll make things worse..."
Lucy McGinley said nothing.
He continued.
"This won't save your husband, even if he insists on taking the blame for the murders we both know he didn't do, it won't save him from hanging. And as for your boys, it won't save them from the noose, either, Mrs McGinley, this'll just tighten it around their necks."
"Heavens, Sheriff Cole," she replied, "you really are as stupid as Joshua! It's not their necks I'm saving. It's my own, you fool, my own!"