By MICHAEL HILL
Associated Press

ALBANY - The oldest inmate in the New York state prison system was granted parole at age 89, just a month after he was denied freedom for a fifth time.

Charles Friedgood, a former Long Island heart surgeon, was convicted in 1976 of injecting his ailing wife Sophie with a fatal dose of the painkiller Demerol. He was arrested at Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to flee the country with more than $450,000 in cash, securities and valuables from his wife's estate.

A parole board denied Friedgood's most recent plea for release last month. But the Spitzer administration's Division of Parole, in an unusual move, ordered a new hearing, citing a pending court case regarding Friedgood's denial of parole in 2005.

A different three-member board met with Friedgood at Woodbourne state prison in Sullivan County on Tuesday and granted him parole on a 2-1 vote.

He is tentatively scheduled for release Dec. 18.

Friedgood turned 89 on Oct. 3. He has terminal cancer and wears a colostomy bag.

Parole spokesman Mark Johnson said Friedgood is tentatively set to be released to a downstate Veterans Affairs hospital he declined to name, citing privacy concerns.

Despite Friedgood's "horrendous" crime, board members who voted to release him cited his good prison record and support from some family members and the prosecuting attorney. The dissenting board member, Chris Ortloff, said the deadly injection was especially heinous because Friedgood was a doctor sworn to save lives.

It was not clear what Friedgood told the board Tuesday, because a transcript of the hearing was not immediately made available. But during the Oct. 9 session, he pleaded for mercy.

"All I'm asking, if you have it in your heart to show a little mercy for a man who committed a serious crime, then I'm begging you to give me a chance to die peacefully and not in a prison," Friedgood said, according to a transcript released by parole officials last week.

The transcript of the October hearing also shows board members prodding Friedgood as to whether the fatal injection was done with criminal intent. "I never said it was an accidental death," Friedgood answered at one point. "I said I acted in an accidental way."

Friedgood was sentenced in 1977 to 25 years to life in prison.

Calls seeking comment from Friedgood's lawyer and a daughter who supported his release were not immediately returned.