REGINA — If the time comes when Robert Latimer is released from prison and gets to return to his grain farm in western Saskatchewan, at least one neighbour will welcome him with open arms.

Latimer, currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his severely disabled daughter Tracy, gets his first shot at greater freedom this week, when the National Parole Board reviews his application for day parole at a hearing slated for Wednesday in Victoria.

Even if day parole is granted, Latimer won't return immediately to his farm near Wilkie because he would have to report to a halfway house at night. But if and when it comes time for full parole, people in the area will be welcoming, said friend and neighbour Audrey Woodrow.

"There's no problem with that, no way, there never was. Nobody ever thought of him as actually a criminal or anything," Woodrow said. "He's just your everyday person-next-door type of thing and that's always stood. He still will be. That hasn't changed.

"He doesn't deserve to be in there, no way."

Few Canadian court dramas polarized public opinion the way Latimer's has.

In the 15 years since he decided to end his daughter's life to free her from pain, he's been praised as a merciful, loving father and pilloried as a selfish child-killer.

Tracy was born with cerebral palsy, which caused muscle control problems. She never progressed beyond the mental level of a three-month-old and over the years suffered through several painful medical procedures.

When Tracy turned 12, she faced another operation to correct a permanently dislocated hip. The pain was expected to be incredible.

So on Oct. 24, 1993, with his wife and kids at church, Latimer put Tracy in the cab of his pickup and ran a hose from the tailpipe in through the back window. Latimer later told police how he watched his daughter's life ebb away.

A seven-year legal battle ensued as prosecutors pursued a murder conviction.

A jury in 1994 found him guilty of second-degree murder, but that was wiped out by the Supreme Court when it was discovered that the RCMP, acting under direction from the Crown, interviewed prospective jurors about their religious beliefs prior to the trial.

A second guilty verdict in 1997 was upheld on appeal. So was the mandatory minimum sentence of life without parole for 10 years.

Latimer began serving his sentence in January 2001 and currently resides at the minimum-security William Head Institution near Victoria.

Offenders serving life sentences are eligible to apply for day parole three years before their full parole eligibility date, which for Latimer is Dec. 8, 2010.

Latimer refused interview requests through prison officials last week, but in a 2006 interview with The Canadian Press he maintained he has no regrets about what he did.

"The law is a very stupid thing when it comes to trying to sort these things out," he said. "They don't have any realistic appreciation of what is going on."

Latimer is angry about what he sees as a flawed judgment on the part of the Supreme Court.

He's also troubled by a reference made to an unidentified, more effective medication Tracy could have been given to ease her pain. The Latimers believed that Tylenol was all her fragile system could handle.

Behind bars he's penned dozens of letters to the Supreme Court and various federal justice ministers seeking clarification. The last letter posted on the website www.robertlatimer.net was dated Aug. 8, 2007.

"The biggest reason why this court cannot give me an answer to my frequently asked question is that the claim of such a medication is a fraudulent fabrication of the Saskatchewan Justice Department prosecutors to bolster the charges against me," the letter reads. "Honest people would not continue to endorse bogus claims that generate such slander."

In prison Latimer has completed the first years of his electrician and carpenter apprenticeships. He still tries to run the farm from behind bars with the help of a manager. His website says more than $300,000 has been donated to two different accounts set up in the family name.

Advocates for the disabled have objected to the way Latimer has been portrayed as a victim throughout his case.

But Laurie Beachell, national co-ordinator with the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, isn't opposed to Latimer getting a chance at parole.

"We would say that the law should treat him equally," Beachell said . "If he is now eligible for parole, then he should have every access to the legal system that anyone else who has been convicted of second-degree murder would have access to."

In the 2006 interview, Latimer said he would consider staying at a halfway house in Victoria if he were to get day parole.

Parole board officials say an offender can ask to be placed anywhere in the country, but the location would have to fit within the prisoner's release plan.

"It would just be another level of freedom," Latimer said at the time."But with a life sentence ... you are rarely free."