Fugitives: An Act of Forgiveness

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Most people who followed the case were not eager to see a 63-year-old man, with a loving family and an aura of grace about him, spend his last days in jail. Though Strachan confessed to the shooting after his arrest, Florida prosecutors were willing to work out a deal that would have allowed him to go free. Even one of Milledge's surviving relatives, a great-great-grandniece, said he should not be imprisoned. "He lived a Christian, decent life," says Pauline Brown. "He sent money to his family. He made something out of himself. He didn't get into any trouble after all these years." All she wanted, she said, was "to shake his hand and hear him say he's sorry."

But this time, Miami police were not about to let the case go. In a city of devouring violence, where policing is so lethal a job, the idea that a cop killer should escape punishment angered the force. A new police chief, Calvin Ross, pressed for extradition, saying that to let Strachan go would "send the wrong message." It didn't matter that it might have been hard to prove manslaughter, much less murder, in a case that was nearly a half-century old.

The extradition negotiations dragged on for more than a year. During that time, Strachan was the oldest inmate in the Tombs. He used his $5 weekly earnings to buy Spanish newspapers for other inmates, who called him "Pops." Strachan's lawyers, William Kunstler and Ron Kuby, fought the case through the courts. "We took the position that in light of the fact that 45 years had gone by, during which Leroy lived openly and publicly, he wasn't a fugitive," says Kuby. Finally last week, Florida officials agreed to a deal: Strachan would plead down to manslaughter, in exchange for a one-year prison term and probation. The 19 months he spent in jail in New York mean that he has already served his time.

In the end, the courts realized that even if Leroy was once a killer, he had become what he pretended to be his whole adult life: a model citizen. He paid his debt to society without society ever even presenting the bill. And so, this week, he will walk out of jail for the first time in two years and be a free man for the first time since a November night 45 years ago.