Fourteen years ago, Lori Berenson was convicted in a secret Peruvian military court of conspiring with a rebel group in a plot to kidnap members of the Peruvian Congress, and was sentenced to life in prison, which was reduced to twenty years by a panel of judges in 2001. But now a judge has released Berenson on parole to national furor in light of, he says, a “psychological analysis” and “reports of her good behavior.” Throughout her years in prison, which recently included the birth of a child, Berenson has always maintained her innocence. In a February 1996 cover story, New York searched for the truth.
