Martin - home and happy with a glass of red wine

Lesley Martin is met with flowers on her release from prison. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Jailed voluntary euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin is home and overflowing with "confidence, serenity and love".

Martin, 41, was freed Arohata Women's Prison in Wellington yesterday, welcomed by her family.

She was jailed for 15 months in April by the High Court at Wanganui for attempted murder by injecting her mother, Joy Martin, 69, with of morphine in May 1999.

At home in New Plymouth last night, Ms Martin cooked spaghetti bolagnaise for son Sean, 10, husband Warren Fulljames and stepdaughters Sophie, 9, and Amber, 13.

Afterwards, she sat drinking red wine. "I have had three sips and I love everybody," she laughed.

Being out of jail was just the best feeling. "I feel calm and confidence, serenity and love. It's huge that we have all come through intact -- nothing happened to me in there and nothing out of the ordinary happened to the children or Warren."

In prison, contact with family helped her survive. "I think it was definitely, definitely phoning home every day," she said. "And the other days when I couldn't, or Warren and the kids were away, it was just awful."

Mr Fulljames visited his wife every second weekend, keeping her up-to-date on all the little happenings of family life. He even smuggled in carpet squares for her to view.

"I managed to semi-redecorate the house from prison, which is no mean feat," she laughed.

In her jail cell, Ms Martin painted pictures on canvas, read books and wrote poetry, short stories and letters.

"I had hundreds and hundreds of letters from supporters throughout the country," she said.

She also wrote the outline for her next book, which she hoped to publish in April or May next year, when a documentary about her campaign would screen on television.

It was through her first book, To Die Like A Dog, that Ms Martin found herself in the public eye and under arrest.

Today, she vowed to continue speaking out. "People are just too scared to speak. I would like to think they now have a voice now," she said.

"I see my role in the evolution of voluntary evolution legislation as drawing people to the real stories behind the headlines and allowing people to embrace the events as they are offered and relate them to ourselves -- put them in our shoes.

"I have always looked at it as a job that is not paid," she said.

Ms Martin said prison had made her much less judgemental about people caught in the justice system.

"I learned a lot about human nature. I learned a lot about our judgements of people as a society; a lot about people's hurt and pain."

She also discovered the strength of the human spirit. "When I was feeling miserable, I was surrounded by women who were in far worse situations, but they could still laugh."

- NZPA