PC CAN EVEN EXCUSE CHILD MURDER

Barbara Downey took her first-grade daughter to a wash near the Superstitions, made her lie face down on a baby blanket and shot her twice in the head, execution-style.

Now, not even five years later, Downey is headed home. She was freed from the state mental hospital this week, released to live with her mother. And, yes, with her remaining child, an 11-year-old son.

Downey claimed God told her to kill Jessica because she had been born out of wedlock and it was the only way she could get into heaven. Three doctors proclaimed the woman nuts.

In October 1999, she was allowed to plead "guilty except insane," a plea that makes her not a criminal but a patient. She was dispatched to the state mental hospital where her attorney, Pinal County Deputy Public Defender Bret Huggins, predicted she would be locked away for "many, many years."

Try three. On Friday, the state Psychiatric Security Review Board declared that Downey has recovered from her insanity and voted to release her.

It has been a blow to Steve Helms, the father, who believes that Downey should be behind bars. "It never will make sense," he says. "You can't just kill your child and then say that God told you to and get away with it."

Apparently, you can.