A judge ordered his re-release from prison this week. A legal axiom states justice and the law are not always the same. In his new life, Valjean became a pillar of society to the benefit of all around him until his past caught up and confronted him years later.
No man can relate to Valjean more than Rene Lima-Marin. Earlier this week, justice and the law finally appeared to meet for Lima-Marin. But just as he glimpsed the open gate before him, it swiftly swung shut again. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency ordered a hold on the Cuban-born immigrant who arrived in the country as a 2-year-old during the Mariel boatlift in Though nobody had been hurt, the court issued mandatory consecutive sentences totaling 98 years in prison. Eight years later, fate proved to be every bit the author as Hugo.
Due to a clerical error, Lima-Marin unexpectedly found himself free. His sentences had been marked to run concurrently, not consecutively. He had renewed life. That second chance would not have meant much, though, except for what Lima-Marin had done in the intervening eight years. Rather than lose himself in the criminal cycle so prevalent in prions, he made the conscious effort to better himself. Let that sink in. A man with no hope of breathing free air for many years, surrounded by temptation to embrace the worst characteristics of humanity, willingly chose to commit himself to being the man he wished he had been.
He worked for the few employers willing to hire a felon, got married, and raised two Cosettes of his own: one step-son and another son from his marriage. He bought a home in Aurora. He became the picture of rehabilitation the criminal justice system claims as its ultimate goal. Moments like that are when the law and justice collide.
Under the law, which the prosecutor swore to uphold, Lima-Marin had to return to prison. While Valjean originally ran, Lima-Marin stood head held high and returned to prison. Rather than gathering his family and fleeing the state, as he could have done at any time in the preceding years, he chose to submit himself to the same system that treated him so unmercifully in the past.
