Dying Prisoner Gets Early Release To Return To San Jose

Cancer Victim Expected To Walk Free On Monday

By John Woolfolk

Mercury News

With less than six months to live and 20 months to serve for a sentence for drug possession, Beverly Dias has been granted her wish to leave prison and die in the company of her San Jose family.

After a week of mulling the cancer-stricken woman's request for compassionate release, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Rene Navarro has agreed to cancel the remainder of the six-year sentence he had given Dias and allow her immediate parole.

``She's excited about it,'' said her husband, Lew Dias, reached at home Saturday.

Dias' family had hoped she would be released in time for her daughter Karma's 11th birthday today. But prison officials were unable to contact parole officers in San Jose before the weekend to notify them of her release, a required protocol, said her lawyer, Cynthia Chandler. She expects Dias, 51, will be released about noon Monday.

Dias was already so sick when she was convicted in 1999 of possessing three grams of cocaine that her lawyers urged a lighter sentence. Hepatitis C and resulting liver cancer had so ravaged her body that only an organ transplant could save her, something no woman has ever been granted in prison, Chandler said. Her condition has since become terminal.

California's 1997 ``compassionate release'' law allows prisoners with a terminal illness to go home to their families with the approval of prison officials and the sentencing judge. Only 12 of 39 requests were granted last year.

There have been 15 compassionate releases this year, said Chandler, whose Oakland legal organization, Justice Now, specializes in such cases. Among them was Vadilla Spragin, 71, convicted of fatally burning a husband she claimed was abusive.

Former state Corrections Director Edward S. Almeida Jr. initially denied Dias' request, but changed his mind before resigning Dec. 11, saying he would allow it if Navarro, the sentencing judge, agreed.

The case has been an emotional whipsaw for Dias' family. Her husband has been so busy fighting for her release that he hasn't even thought of what they will do once she's out.

``Make up for lost time, I imagine,'' he said.

Copyright © 2003 Mercury News.

This article posted January 15, 2004.