Ill Inmate Who Killed Abuser Is Released : Prisons: She is freed by authorities who say she has less than four months to live. Group hopes it is a sign that other abused women will gain clemency.

While Gov. Pete Wilson considers amnesty pleas from 34 prisoners who killed their abusive husbands, prison authorities Thursday granted an early release to a terminally ill inmate who murdered a man who had beaten her.

The release of Birdie Foley, 53, who suffers from cancer of the esophagus, gave a boost to organizations that are seeking to win clemency for as many as 100 women prisoners statewide.

“We certainly are optimistic that it may lead to more releases,” said Ellen Barry, director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, a San Francisco group that learned of Foley’s plight while spearheading the amnesty effort. “It indicates compassion on the part of the governor and the Board of Prison Terms staff.”

Warden Teena Farmon of the California Women’s Facility at Chowchilla cited only Foley’s illness in requesting that the prison board grant a “compassionate release,” said Alice Valdez, a prison official who handled the case.

Foley was released to family members who were expected to care for her in her hometown of Bakersfield, Valdez said.

Foley’s release date had been in 1994. But in a petition to Wilson, Foley’s lawyer noted that a doctor gave Foley only a year or two to live. The prison board concluded that she had less than four months to live, based on additional medical evidence.

“She is very ill. That, in addition to the evidence of abuse, made a very compelling story,” said Kathryn Beck, a Palo Alto lawyer who represented Foley.

Foley shot and killed Robert McBride, 32, in February, 1980. The two had been involved in what Beck called a stormy and abusive relationship over a 10-year period. Foley was forced to seek medical help once, and on one occasion a friend of Foley’s told of having to step between the woman and McBride.

“The blows he administered were always aimed at her head. (Foley) has a soft spot on the top of her head as a result of these blows,” Beck said in the letter to Wilson.

Last year, a group of 34 women prisoners who said they killed their husbands because they had been battered asked Wilson to consider granting clemency. Last week, Wilson asked that the women provide him additional information about their cases.

The governor recently signed into law a bill that allows testimony about spousal abuse in certain circumstances. The Kern County judge who presided over Foley’s trial in 1980 refused to allow such testimony, and sentenced her to 17 years to life in prison for the second-degree murder conviction.