By | August 15 2012 8:29 AM

Betty Smithey has spent the last 49 years locked up in the Arizona State Prison Complex in Perryville, Ariz. The almost 50 year stint makes Smithey the nation's longest serving female inmate. But on Tuesday, the 69-year-old who was convicted the 1963 New Year's Day murder of Sandy Gerberick, woke up a free woman.