One of the Cuban spies released in a prisoner exchange this month may have been imprisoned in California, but his sperm sure wasn't.

There were no paternity tests necessary when Gerardo Hernandez returned home last week to his pregnant wife, because the U.S. facilitated their conception while he was purportedly serving a double life sentence in a California federal prison.

"We can confirm the United States facilitated Mrs. Hernandez's request to have a baby with her husband," Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush told reporters.

NPR reports the unusual request "was passed along by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt" who felt it was the humanitarian thing to do, with the added benefit of thawing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. [Leahy is also famous for giving Fidel Castro his first taste of America's greatest export: Ben and Jerry's ice cream.]

"It was an emotional meeting," Leahy told the Times. "She wanted to have a baby before she got too old. She was deeply in love with her husband."

Via NBC:

"She was probably 42 or 43 and she had no expectation her husband was ever getting out prison — he was serving two consecutive life sentences — and she was desperate to have a child, knowing she was almost out of time," Rieser [an aide to Leahy] said.

"Senator Leahy and Marcelle Leahy are parents and grandparents and they sympathized with her on a human level and they wanted to help her, and they did it for her."

Good to know someone's looking out for some prisoners in the U.S.?