female inmate is free.

Betty Smithey, 69, whose prison term began following her conviction
for the murder of a 15-month-old Phoenix girl in 1963, appeared at a
parole hearing Monday morning and by that afternoon walked, with the aid
of a cane, out of the gates of the Perryville state prison in Goodyear.

"It's wonderful driving down the road and not seeing any barbed
wire," Smithey said by phone as she traveled with relatives to her
niece's Mesa home, where she will reside. "I am lucky, so very lucky."

"Like I told the (parole) board, I know it's going to be a big adjustment, but I'll take it and I'll make good," she said.

Members of Arizona's Board of Executive Clemency agreed that Smithey
had proven she is no longer the troubled woman who at age 20 murdered
SandyGerberick on New Year's Day 1963, while working as the family's
live-in baby-sitter, or the woman who that same year threatened to kill
herself after being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Board members voted 4-1 to grant an absolute discharge, not only freeing Smithey from prison but also any community supervision.

Smithey became eligible for discharge after Gov. Jan Brewer granted
her clemency in June, reducing her sentence to 49 years to life.

"I really see no value in keeping you in prison any longer. I really
see no value in keeping strings on you any longer," Parole Board
Chairman and Director Jesse Hernandez told Smithey before voting to
grant her discharge.

Monday's vote was a rare occurrence. Sentenced to life before August
1973, Smithey was numbered among the so-called "old-code lifers" who are
eligible for parole