How To Forgive But Not Forget

On September 15, 2001, four days after the 9/11 attacks, Frank Roques sat in an Applebees in Mesa, Arizona and declared to his waiter, “I’m going to go out and shoot some towel heads.”

Frank then went home, loaded his guns into his truck, and drove around town looking for targets. He passed a Chevron station. Outside, a man with a long beard and turban named Balbir Singh Sodhi was planting flowers in front of the gas station he managed. Frank pulled into the station, got out of his truck, and shot Balbir five times in the back, killing him.

Balbir Singh Sodhi was not Arab or even Muslim. He was Sikh, a member of a religion that originated a few hundred years ago in Punjab, India. But due to cultural stereotypes, Frank didn’t know the difference. When he was caught and arrested, Frank asked the police why they were arresting him. “I’m a patriot!” he said. “I’m an American!”

At his trial, Frank was sentenced to death. But an unlikely person stood up and requested that he not be executed: Balbir’s brother, Rana. Rana, also a Sikh, argued that by killing the man who murdered his brother, you removed his opportunity to express remorse and grow as an individual. Frank’s sentence was downgraded to life in prison.

That remorse would quickly arrive. Frank felt terrible regret, tortured by what he had done. He was mistaken…