OFFICER'S PRIVILEGE: THE COL. GEORGE MARECEK STORY

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Thirty years is a stiff sentence for a second-degree murder conviction. In Marecek's case, it was handed down because the judge decided that the aggravating factors - particularly that Marecek, as a husband, had violated a position of trust when he killed Viparet - outweighed the mitigating factors, among them that he was a solid military man who had a sterling career and a spotless reputation.

In 2002, the appeals court again intervened, this time setting aside the sentence and ordering a new sentencing hearing. At the heart of the Appeals Court ruling was a kind of irony. In effect, as Hicks now puts it, the prosecution had done such a solid job of proving that Viparet had been fearful of Marecek, that it undercut its own argument, and essentially proved that there was little or no trust for Marecek to have violated.

The next year, his sentence was cut in half. He was by all accounts, a model prisoner, and on August 11, 2003, after serving less than five years, Colonel George Marecek was paroled.

His parole expires in July.