By mid-May to June, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner is expected to receive the paperwork that goes along with the Board of Pardon's recommendation to commute Judith Ann McBride's sentence.

Judith Ann McBride, convicted almost a quarter-century ago of feeding her husband a Valium-laced macaroni salad before an accomplice fatally stabbed him 28 times, is one big step closer to possible parole.

The state Board of Pardons on Friday recommended that Gov. Ruth Ann Minner commute McBride's life-without-parole sentence to a simple life term that leaves open the possibility of release. McBride, 60, who has served 26 years, would be eligible for parole if Minner goes along with the recommendation.

"[Gov. Minner] will not be making a comment until she has had a chance to review that paperwork and make a decision," spokeswoman Kate Bailey said. Minner will not receive McBride's paperwork for at least another month.

"We're pleased with the consideration that the board gave to our application," said Daniel F. Wolcott Jr., McBride's attorney. Wolcott would not say anything more.

William McBride, the victim's son from a previous marriage, was stunned to hear that after seven attempts before the pardon board, the application was approved.

For years, McBride supporters said she shouldn't have received such a strict sentence because she was a victim of domestic abuse and, by today's standards, she would more than likely have been charged with something that carried less prison time. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III, who supported her commutation when he was Attorney General, said McBride should have been offered a plea to second-degree murder, which carries less time in prison.

"Not that she should have gotten off," Oberly said. "She is every bit responsible for having set into motion facts that caused the death. But like many of these cases, you have different degrees of culpability."

Attorney General Carl C. Danberg said he reviewed the record and disagrees. "I opposed the petition for pardon and I will continue to do so," Danberg said, adding that he will present his reasons to Minner.

In Friday's decision, the pardon board cited the length of time served, the "undisputed evidence" that McBride poses no threat to society, the support for her plea by the Department of Correction and the unanimous support of the Board of Parole.

Officials moved McBride to the Arizona State Prison Complex -- Perryville in Goodyear, Ariz., in March 2003 so she could be closer to her daughter in Texas.

In 1982, a Kent County Superior Court jury convicted her of conspiring with Florida drifter Frank L. Ross to murder her estranged husband. She contended she'd had years of physical and emotional abuse from William McBride.

In her trial, one of the most sensational in Kent County history, McBride testified how she put Valium in her husband's macaroni salad and had sex with him in an attempt to put him to sleep.

But Ross wound up stabbing William McBride 28 times in the head and body as the defenseless man tried to fend off the attacker. He was found dead, face down in his bathtub.

At her hearing in February, McBride said the plan was for Ross to beat her husband in retaliation for abusing her and her children. She said she was sorry he was killed and said if she got out of prison, she would work to help others avoid her plight.

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