The parole board decision was different from most — not a no, which the inmate had heard many times. More like a yes, with a condition attached.

The inmate, Dempsey Hawkins, had spent his entire adult life in New York state prison for a crime he committed on Staten Island in 1976, when he was 16.

Many parole commissioners over the years denied his release, recalling the details of his offense, the day he murdered his former girlfriend. But in August came a reversal with a twist: Mr. Hawkins, now 57, could be paroled on the condition that he be deported to England.

It was a country he knew next to nothing about personally. Mr. Hawkins was born in London in 1959 to an English mother and an American father stationed overseas with the United States Air Force. They split up, and Dempsey moved to Staten Island with his mother when he was 6.