Jimmy Carter Wins Release of American Prisoner Aijalon Gomes

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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has done it again. Carter headed home from North Korea today after securing a pardon for an American teacher jailed there since January. Carter and Aijalon Gomes boarded a plane at Pyongyang's airport and are expected to arrive in Boston this afternoon. The former president landed in North Korea on Wednesday on a private mission to negotiate Gomes' release. The 31-year-old English teacher was sentenced to eight years' hard labor in April and fined more than $600,000 after he was accused of illegally crossing the border from China and committing a "hostile act." Gomes was freed after Carter "made an apology" to number two official Kim Yong Nam and promised that such a case "will never happen again." Instead of pondering why this case, which involved a black man, got so little media coverage when it happened — as opposed to, let's say, Laura Ling and Euna Lee — we'll celebrate the fact that Gomes is coming home.

Read more at AOL News.