California prison officials will free a quadriplegic rapist whose care costs the state $625,000 a year.

The Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/ZGwHSP) reports a parole board agreed this week to release Steven Martinez from Corcoran state prison.

He applied last year to become the first inmate freed under a medical parole law that aims to reduce prison costs. Martinez was turned down as a public safety risk. An appeals court in San Diego rejected that decision last month and ordered his release.

He'll be the 48th inmate paroled under the program.

Martinez got 157 years-to-life in 1998 for a San Diego attack in which he rammed a woman's car, then kidnapped and repeatedly raped her.

He was paralyzed a decade ago when another inmate stabbed him in the neck.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com