Aug 15 - Damn!! USA's longest-serving female inmate freed after 49 years

By Budala - 08-15-2012, 01:14 AM - Boxden > BX Daily Bugle - news and headlines

Betty Smithey, 69, whose prison term began following her conviction for the murk 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.

"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 proved she is no longer the troubled woman who at age 20 murked Sandy Gerberick 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 k!ll 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 only if first granted a commutation by the governor. She is only the third such inmate to be granted clemency since 1989.

In 1994 and 2003, boards recommended clemency for Smithey only to have first Gov. Fife Symington and then Gov. Janet Napolitano deny it.

Last spring, not long after the board unanimously recommended clemency for Smithey, Brewer replaced three of its five members; on Monday, the new members in particular sought reassurance that Smithey doesn't pose any danger of violence. Much of their questioning of Smithey, her attorneys and supporters and psychiatrist Elizabeth Kohlhepp focused on Smithey's youthful mental state, whether the board could be sure she'd changed, and whether she could handle the stress of returning to the outside world after five decades.

As the deciding vote came down in her favor, Smithey crossed herself and looked down briefly as if in disbelief that the moment had finally arrived.

Smithey endured a horrific childhood of abandonment, abuse and mistreatment by foster and adoptive parents, creating, Kohlhepp said, a fragile youth with poor coping skills who became psychotic under extreme stress.

In her early years in prison she was rebellious and troublesome, escaping four times from three different prisons between 1974 and 1981.

But Kohlhepp, who evaluated Smithey's mental health in 2003 and again recently, said that over the decades Smithey worked hard to transform herself.

"She has no risk factors for violence," said Kohlhepp. "She doesn't have a criminal mind-set."

The key moment, said Smithey, came in 1983 when she received a letter from Emma Simmons, Sandy Gerberick's mother, forgiving her for the crime.

"She made me feel that I wasn't a monster," said Smithey. "I felt if she could forgive me for taking her child's life, I could forgive myself. It was my responsibility to try to become a better person than I was."

USA's longest-serving female inmate freed after 49 years â€“ USATODAY.com

> Aug 15 - Damn!! USA's longest-serving female inmate freed after 49 years - Photo posted in BX Daily Bugle - news and headlines | Sign in and leave a comment below!

History of abuse: Smithey in 1959 with Mitchell Johnson, who she kidnapped from an employer four years before murking another baby. The parole board said she was no longer a threat

08-15-2012, 02:30 AM

Smithey in 1959 with Mitchell Johnson, who she kidnapped from an employer four years before murking another baby.

And they let her out...

08-15-2012, 04:27 AM

I would have never released her. She should have rotted in jail, smh.

08-15-2012, 05:11 AM

!! should have died

08-15-2012, 07:49 AM

[pic]

08-15-2012, 08:43 AM

inb4racewar....

08-15-2012, 08:49 AM

50 year is a long !!ing time........she did her time.....it is what it is............

08-15-2012, 11:12 AM

She gone to shocked seeing blacks runnin !! out chea now [pic]

08-15-2012, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by Dos-effect

50 year is a long !!ing time........she did her time.....it is what it is............

I respectfully disagree.

08-15-2012, 12:38 PM

Nothing wrong with that, but to put it in full perspective.........it wasn't exactly a cake walk.........I imagine this was a incredibly hard 50 year stretch, especially the beginning.

08-15-2012, 12:40 PM

I heard she escaped from jail at one point.

08-15-2012, 01:28 PM

Originally Posted by Dos-effect

Nothing wrong with that, but to put it in full perspective.........it wasn't exactly a cake walk.........I imagine this was a incredibly hard 50 year stretch, especially the beginning.

No doubt about that, and our justice system isn't the best however murking a 15 month old, and not spending the rest of your natural life in jail just does not sit well with me.

08-15-2012, 03:31 PM

Good for her. She did her time. That's what the system is about. Hope she can make good with her remaining years.

Also, hope she doesn't find out what crack is.. [pic]

08-15-2012, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by TheMindOf

Good for her. She did her time. That's what the system is about. Hope she can make good with her remaining years.

Also, hope she doesn't find out what Bath Salts are.. [pic]

Fixed*

08-15-2012, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by Dos-effect

Nothing wrong with that, but to put it in full perspective.........it wasn't exactly a cake walk.........I imagine this was a incredibly hard 50 year stretch, especially the beginning.

as opposed to the 50 years that child didnt get to live

08-15-2012, 04:21 PM

should have died in there

08-15-2012, 05:03 PM

Hide your babies...

08-15-2012, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by joshdogg26

should have died in there

hate to say it but pretty much

08-15-2012, 05:14 PM

[pic]

08-15-2012, 05:26 PM

she shouldve got the firing squad, they only let her out cause she is White.

Research White Privilege, if she was Black she would get the [rip] penalty.

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