Covenant looked up into Mhoram’s sympathetic face.
According to Donaldson: Mhoram is an external personification of Covenant. Hence Mhoram represents the good nature of Covenant that he has lost (and is implicitly moving towards in a redemptive arc).
Pity, Covenant's rape of Lena renders him irredeemable not matter what 'good,' he does or attempts to become.
There can be no expiation of this stain of rape. Only the justice of severe punishment can balance the scale of what can not be remediated.
