New York ? New York’s oldest prisoner – an 89-year-old former heart surgeon convicted of killing his wife more than 30 years ago – has been granted parole.

Charles Friedgood, serving a 25-years-to-life sentence, was tentatively scheduled for release Dec. 18 after a parole board met with him Tuesday and voted 2-1 to free him.

The Long Island doctor was convicted in 1976 of injecting his wife, Sophie, with a fatal dose of the painkiller Demerol the year before. He was arrested at Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to flee the country with more than $450,000 in cash, securities and valuables from his wife’s estate.

Friedgood, who has terminal cancer, had been denied parole five times.

The two board members who voted to release him cited his good prison record and support from some family members and the prosecuting attorney. The dissenting board member said the deadly injection was especially heinous because Friedgood was a doctor sworn to save lives.