Shadow
07-14-2012, 09:45 AM
Betty Smithey has been in prison for 49 years, convicted of killing a baby. Until now she was without the possibility of parole, but the "old code lifer" has been granted a chance at freedom by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.
Smithey, who is the U.S.'s longest serving female inmate according to a public records search by the Arizona Republic (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/07/08/20120708arizona-woman-who-killed-baby-1963-likely-get-parole.html), was convicted in the 1963 New Year's Day murder of Sandy Gerberick, a 15-month-old she had been babysitting.
At the time, Smithey was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. According to the law at the time she was sentenced, only the governor could grant her clemency.
She tried, appealing to former Arizona governors Fyfe Symington and Janet Napolitano, but was denied until Brewer, the current governor, approved Smithey's clemency request and agreed to lower her sentence to 48 years to life.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/arizona-woman-convicted-1963-murder-parole/story?id=16774795
Smithey, who is the U.S.'s longest serving female inmate according to a public records search by the Arizona Republic (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/07/08/20120708arizona-woman-who-killed-baby-1963-likely-get-parole.html), was convicted in the 1963 New Year's Day murder of Sandy Gerberick, a 15-month-old she had been babysitting.
At the time, Smithey was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. According to the law at the time she was sentenced, only the governor could grant her clemency.
She tried, appealing to former Arizona governors Fyfe Symington and Janet Napolitano, but was denied until Brewer, the current governor, approved Smithey's clemency request and agreed to lower her sentence to 48 years to life.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/arizona-woman-convicted-1963-murder-parole/story?id=16774795