OP/ED: Poetic Killer Caught, But Did He Redeem Himself?

A POPULAR peacenik poet in Chicago has been exposed as a fugitive double-murderer who escaped from prison almost two decades ago.

Porter has been one of Massachusetts’s 12 “Most Wanted” since he escaped from a minimum security prison in 1985, where he was serving a life sentence for murder. He had already committed a string of robberies when he shot a sales clerk in the back of the head with a sawn-off shotgun in 1960

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This man has been on the run since the sixties. He changed his name, and became active in his church, and surrounding community. He was known as a gentleman; was kind to strangers, and even helped on the Harold Washington Mayoral Campaign in Chicago. He was a popular anti-war poet, and had two books published, one selling out after the first week.

After being on the run for over 30 years, becoming an active churchmember and outspoken community activist, is he "redeemable', meaning that though he took lives, he has paid for it by doing good for the community? Aren't we suppoed to believe that after serving a prison term, an ex-convict has paid the price of his crime, and his slate has been wiped clean?

Is an evil act redeemable by an act of good faith?

If so, then I believe Norman Porter may have 'paid' for his crimes by the good he has done for the community and others for the time he has been on the run.