On Monday, Harvey Weinig, a 53-year-old lawyer, onetime idealist and convicted felon, is scheduled to walk out of federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J. Mr. Weinig, a not terribly well-known beneficiary of former President Bill Clinton's midnight clemency orders, had his sentence of 11 years cut by half.

There to meet him will be Alice Morey, Mr. Weinig's wife and the tireless architect of his release. For Ms. Morey, a City University law professor who met her husband when they were both young law students interested in social justice, the sweet moment outside Fort Dix will conclude an exhausting personal campaign.

Over several years, including a final six intense months, Ms. Morey enlisted the help of a cousin who had been a speechwriter for Mr. Clinton. She lobbied the president's former deputy chief of staff, whose children had gone to the same school as hers. And she hired a politically connected former Justice Department lawyer who put together a voluminous application detailing her family's anguish and what she believed was her husband's unduly harsh prison sentence for his part in a drug money laundering conspiracy.

The effort to use unusual access to maximum advantage paid off last Jan. 20 when Mr. Clinton's final clemency orders were announced, and Mr. Weinig was on the list.