America’s Longest Serving Female Inmate Walks Free After 49 Years Behind Bars
Betty Smithey, 69, walked out of Perrysville state prison Monday after serving 49 years for strangling a 15-month old baby to death. Mere hours after appearing before the Arizona parole board, Smithey re-entered the free world with the aid of cane. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer granted Betty Smithey clemency when the parole board determined the convicted murderer was no longer a danger to society.
Betty Smithey was incarcerated at the Perrysville state prison in Arizona in 1963 for the murder of baby Sandy Gerberick. The Arizona parole board decided Smithey was “no longer the same woman” as she was when she strangled the infant, according to the Daily Mail. The parole board voted 4-1 to release America’s longest serving female inmate without any community supervision mandates.
“It’s wonderful driving down the road and not seeing any barbed wire. I am lucky, so very lucky,” Smithey stated during an interview with the Arizona Republic.
Smithey is what is known as an “old-code lifer” in Arizona. Inmates sentenced to life before 1973 are required to garner clemency from the governor before becoming eligible for parole. Three such inmates have been released since 1989. In 1994 and 2003 Smithey also applied for clemency but was denied release by then governors Fife Symington and Janet Napolitano.
In 1959 Smithey kidnapped toddler Mitchell Johnson before she murdered Sandy Gerberick. Photos of Betty Smithey holding Johnson in her arms attracted a lot of bidders on ebay. The longest serving female inmate in the United States was employed as a nanny for the baby she strangled to death and the child’s three siblings. Smithey was arrested while hitchhiking a day after the murder on a nearby highway. Smithey managed to escape from prison four times between 1974 and 1981. In 1983 Sandy Gerberick’s mother Emma Simmons sent Betty Smithey a letter noting she had forgiven her for murdering the baby.
Tags : America's longest serving female inmate, Arizona, arizona parole board, betty smithey, clemency, convicted murderer, danger to society, emma simmons, escape from prison, governor jan brewer, janet napolitano, kidnapper mitchell johnson, longest serving female inmate, nanny, old code lifer, parole, perrysville state prison, sandy gerberick, strangled infant, strangling baby
Posted: August 14, 2012
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Aug 15, 2012
And this person was released from prison…way to go Governor! Kidnapping, murder, and prison escape x4…sounds like a candidate for clemency to me!
Aug 15, 2012
This is happening everyday in michigan. Its all because of money. Michigan has been better at letting pedophiles go though. Lansing stare journal had a good article about that this week.
Aug 15, 2012
this woman should never have been released….that baby never saw the light of day again…that woman should never see a day outside of a prison wall!
Aug 15, 2012
They have to make space in jail for innocent immigrants that only come to work. of course they have to free a baby murderer.
Aug 15, 2012
Can you imagine this look on her face looking at a young child? In 1963 she strangled 14-month-old Sandy Gerberick to death. Previously, she kidnapped toddler Mitchell Johnson in 1959. She also escaped from prison 4 times. And they let her out. Nice move Governor. Hope she is in horrible pain all her days & that her days be short! Disgusting waste of air by this sub human.
Aug 15, 2012
She's not a danger to society anymore? How is she not a danger to babies?
Aug 16, 2012
Evil! A kidnapping and a Murder and she gets out of this alive? Shameful!
Aug 17, 2012
What a disturbed person, I cannot believe that they are letting her out. What is more evil then killing a child. She did so with her bare hands and I believe that if they would not have caught her with the baby boy that she kidnapped she probably would have killed him to. She was in a reform prison but does not say for what. Even if she had priors as a teen involving children it would not have been allowed but in this case I think the Gov should have looked.
Oct 31, 2012
you are not 'innocent' if you knowingly break the law to come here, continue breaking the law to remain here, and do not try to establish a legal foothold in the country to correct that! You are also further being unethical by taking funds away from legal immigrants and citizens, despite being legally allowed to it is still wrong. Add to that, if you have no reason to not enter the country legally, why do so illegally, unless you have some undesirable trait you need to hid in order to come here! I am all for LEGAL immigration, so do not think this is a racial issue, it is NOT! It is a LEGAL issue, period!
That said, this convo had no place in this article! One has nothing to do with the other.