After spending 31 years in Taconic Correctional Facility, child killer Marybeth Tinning will finally be free.
The 75-year-old went in front of the New York parole board last week, and was granted parole after six failed attempts since 2007.
Tinning's earliest release date from the medium-security prison is on August 21, where she'll be under supervised parole the remainder of her life.
Prison officials said Tinning is "scheduled for release pending the completion of her community preparation package, which includes an approved residence."
The Murder
In 1987, Tinning was convicted of smothering her four-month-old daughter, Tami Lynne, two years prior.
All nine of Tinning's children had died before the age of four between 1972 to 1985, with eight said to be under suspicious circumstances.
Although she was indicted of three of the deaths, Tinning was only charged with the murder of Tami Lynne. But, she eventually admitted to the murder, she denied involvement in any of her other children's deaths and was sentenced to 20 years to life.
Despite initially insisting she had no involvement in Tami Lynne's death, she finally admitted to the murder in 2011.
"After the deaths of my other children ... I just lost it," she told the board during her fourth parole hearing. "(I) became a damaged, worthless piece of a person and when my daughter was young, in my state of mind at that time, I just believed she was going to die also. So I just did it."
Her husband, Joseph Tinning, has never wavered from supporting his wife during the entire ordeal, and visited her in prison at least once every two months.
He said when his wife told him that she was granted parole, the two became very "emotional."
"It's very emotional. "She was very emotional telling me," Joseph Tinning said, adding that he's "very glad that it will soon be all over with."
Previous Meetings With The Board
During her stint in prison, Tinning was met with both support and opposition for her release from those heavily involved in the case.
Despite the fact that then-state police Investigator William A. Barnes had gotten Tinning's initial murder confession, he had supported her release since she first appeared in front of the parole board, believing she was no longer a threat to the public.
However, the Schenectady County District Attorney's Office and its current district attorney Robert Carney believe Tinning shouldn't see the light of day.
But, Tinning always begged to differ. During her fifth hearing with the parole board, Tinning vowed to be an "asset" to society.
"I ask you to see me as I am today, not as I was then, and to show you that I am a changed and loving person, that I am confronted with the result of my actions every day," she wrote. "I will carry the pain and regret for the rest of my life. I would be an asset, not a problem, to society."
She added that she'd prove her rehabilitation by "working in the church and the community where my help is needed, such as volunteering at a food bank and homeless shelters."
When asked, Carney said that while he wouldn't question the parole board's decision to free the convicted murderer, he wished Tinning would acknowledged her horrifying crime.
"I don't know if there can ever be true rehabilitation in the absence of acknowledgment of responsibility," Carney said. "But I hope that she lives out her days peacefully and poses no threat [to] anyone."
For more true crime stories, check out these harrowing articles:
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- 'America's Most Wanted' Started With A Father's Quest To Solve His Own Son's Murder Case
[H/T: The Daily Gazette, Albany Times Union]