Ian Manuel spent 26 years behind bars after he shot a woman in the face when he was just 13 years old, but he rarely felt alone. That’s because the woman he hurt, Debbie Baigrie, decided to forgive him — and more.

Baigrie, then 28, was out with friends for the first time since giving birth to her second child, and she was walking back to her car to head home. Manuel, who had a history of minor run-ins with the law, was with a group of older men and was being peer-pressured into robbing someone that night.

Baigrie and Manuel never thought they'd talk to - let alone see - each other again. But in December 1991, he decided to pick up the phone in prison and ask for her forgiveness.

"I didn't consciously forgive him," Bairgrie explains. "It was just over time, when I got through my trauma."

Manuel is now writing a memoir about his story and living in Montgomery, Alabama, where he works for the EJI. The group pays for his apartment through its Post-Release Education and Preparation program.

To read more of Caitlin Keating's article, please click here.