QUEZALTEPEQUE -- A former national guardsman walked out of prison Tuesday, paroled after serving 17 years of a 30-year prison sentence for the 1980 rape and murder of three American nuns and a lay worker.

Jose Roberto Moreno Canjura, one of five guardsmen sentenced for the crimes in 1984, left La Esperanza prison after he was released under a new law intended to ease prison overcrowding.

Two more guardsmen are also up for parole under the new law and may be released soon. The other two did not qualify for release because one had been convicted of a weapons charge and the other had taken part in a prison disturbance.