CARLISLE -- It was just after 10 p.m. when a black SUV rolled to the curb. Amid the darkness, its guest -- the one that the crowd had been waiting days, months, years to see -- was barely visible.

But they knew this was the moment. The chanting began: "Terry! Terry! Terry!"

As the vehicle came to a halt, Letitia "Terry" Smallwood stepped out of the backseat and into the TV cameras and the embrace of a dozen friends and family.

The cheering got louder.

After 42 years in prison, Smallwood, 62, was released on bail on Monday evening, pending a new trial in a 1972 arson-murder in Carlisle that she claims she never committed.

The release follows a ruling by Cumberland County Judge Edward E. Guido last month that sided with an appeal lodged on behalf of Smallwood that questioned the arson science used to convict her.

Although she has left her prison cell, Smallwood is not exactly a free woman. District Attorney David Freed is appealing Guido's ruling to the state Superior Court. Even if that court upholds the county judge's decision, Smallwood could still be retried in the 1972 case.

Still, for Smallwood, her friends and family, Monday's homecoming seemed close to the victory they were looking for.

"I never actually believed that this was going to come -- to be honest with you, to tell you the truth," said Calvin Barnes, a childhood friend who grew up with Smallwood. "It's unreal. Unreal, you know?"

Under her bail conditions, Smallwood is required to live at her aunt's home in Carlisle, to not travel outside Pennsylvania, to report every two weeks to the county's probation office, and to have no contact with the families of the fire victims. Two people died in the 1972 fire: Paula Wagner, 26 and Steven Johnson, 23.

Attorneys with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, which has represented Smallwood in her appeal, picked her up from the State Correctional Institution at Muncy to bring her to her aunt's house Monday evening.

After a few minutes of hugs and well-wishes from her family on the curb of her aunt's house, a grinning Smallwood was ushered by her family into her aunt's house. She deferred questions from assembled reporters to her lawyers.

Amid the dim light of the house's porch, Nilam Sanghvi, a staff attorney with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, said seeing Smallwood reunite with her family was heart-warming but reiterated that her legal battle was not over yet.

"We are still on the journey," she said. "The case is not over, but we are happy that Terry can be home with her family."