Bennie Heard walked out of the Augusta Transitional Center on Tuesday and took in a long drag of the early morning air. No one needed to tell him there was something different about the smell.

For the first time in 20 years - 20 years, nine months and 19 days to be exact - the former Augusta Boxing Club member and amateur champion was taking in a breath as a free man.

He said he always believed this day would come.

"In my heart I truly did," Mr. Heard said as he held tight to his wife, Angela. "That's what made me keep going. I asked God to give me strength and he gave me strength."

Before his troubles, Mr. Heard had been one of America's best amateur boxers. He was the nation's top-ranked light-heavyweight in 1982 and was an alternate on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team. ESPN signed him to a three-year, $350,000 contract in 1984 and Mr. Heard had a 2-0 record as a professional.

Mr. Heard had been in the halfway house for prisoners awaiting parole since April. He was notified last week that he was going to be getting out, having successfully completed a work-release program.

Mr. Heard, dressed neatly in dark blue trousers, light blue shirt and a tie his wife had brought him, said one of his first stops would be a visit to his ailing mother in Elberton. He hadn't seen her in about 10 years because health problems cut short her visits.

Reached later Tuesday on his wife's cell phone, Mr. Heard said their reunion was sweet. "She told me to come over here and hug me," he said. "She was crying. I had tears in my eyes."

He said he also plans to visit the mother of the man he killed in 1985, during a card game at a local hangout in Elberton.

"I want to see the victim's family mother because she forgave me in 1992," Mr. Heard said. "She said she wanted me home, and I'm home now. So I'm going to go give her a hug and tell her I'm sorry for her son's death. Give her a hug and a kiss."

The man he shot, Raymond Winn, was Mr. Heard's best friend at the time.

He has maintained that it was an accident, that he pulled the gun to frighten Mr. Winn's brother, who had accused him of cheating in a card game the night before. He said Mr. Winn grabbed the gun and it went off, the bullet hitting his buddy in the head. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Mr. Heard, 46, wants to resume his boxing career. He said he plans to start training as soon as he gets approval from his parole officer and has a cyst removed from behind his right knee.

"I've been keeping the dream alive for 20 years and nine months," he said. "So I'm ready to do it now."

Tom Moraetes, director of Augusta Boxing Club who trained Mr. Heard as an amateur, said his former protege's size and age will work against him. He said several boxing promoters he's contacted didn't show much interest in Mr. Heard because he wasn't a heavyweight.

He said he would prefer that Mr. Heard give up his dream to resume his career, but added: "I will be the last one to say he can't do it. There's a strong possibility that Bennie can still do some things in the ring."

Mrs. Heard said she plans to support her husband in whatever he decides to do.

"He was born to fight, and that's the dream that kept him alive for the last 20 years, nine months, 19 days," Mrs. Heard said, adding that they will stay at her home in Jonesboro. "That's his dream. Nobody but God has a right to tell him he can't fight."