Shaka Senghor is a mentor to young men and women, he is a prison reform activist, he is a motivational speaker, he is an author too. He is also a killer, a man who spent years behind bars. A reformed man, all thanks to a letter he received from the mother of his victim.

At 19 on his native Detroit streets Senghor had become a known force. He was a drug dealer, he had survived being shot. He had been dealing crack since he was 14 years old!

In 1991 he got into a fight with some young men wanting to buy drugs. Senghor shot one of those men dead. He spent the time since then until 2010 in jail, much in solitary confinement.

He read, reflected and learned and decided he would turn his life around.

The point where this seed is clear came when he received a letter, 6 years into his sentence, from the mother of his victim.

The Huffington Post reported:

“She started off telling me who David was,” Senghor says. “He had a 10-month-old son that he never got a chance to see [reach] his first birthday. He had a daughter who was struggling greatly. [Nancy] wanted me to know the hurt that I had caused, the devastation I caused their family.”

As eye-opening as it was for Senghor to have a humanized understanding of his victim, it was the rest of Nancy’s letter that was truly powerful.

“She went on to say … that she loved me,” Senghor says. “And then she says she forgives me.”

Senghor was dumbfounded.

“I just couldn’t imagine how this woman could love me knowing that I had caused her and her family so much devastation,” he says.

That little letter and powerful act of forgiveness helped Senghor, now 43, to make life changes that transformed him into the person he is today: a mentor to young men and women, a prison reform activist, a motivational speaker, an author and a true testament to the power of redemption.

“Looking back and watching the incremental growth, that was the seed,” Senghor says of Nancy’s letter. “It let me know that I was redeemable.”

Senghor can be seen talking about his redemption on the premier of “SuperSoul Sunday” which airs Sunday 20th March 2016 at 11 a.m. ET on OWN.