PORTLAND (AP) — Susan Cunningham wants to make sure Omar Carroll stays in prison. She’s afraid he would come after her if he got out. And she figures she owes it to the girl he killed.

Tina Marie Jones was barely 13 in 1985 and Cunningham’s foster daughter when Carroll, then 17, stabbed her to death with a penknife. For two decades, Cunningham has been attending hearings, testifying against his release.

“I didn’t keep her safe,” Cunningham said. “So this is the least I can do.”

The case is one among dozens before the Oregon Board of Parole, which has been in the news in recent months because of Richard Troy Gillmore, the serial “Jogger Rapist” from Portland seeking his release over the opposition of victims. The board has delayed a decision while prosecutors weigh charging Gillmore with threatening a victim.

Largely unnoticed are the 110 other sex offenders, killers and convicts who this year have asked the parole board to be released from prison.

The parole board turns down most requests, but it has paroled 13 inmates in the first eight months of 2008. They include five killers and four sex offenders.

Until Oregon voters passed mandatory minimum sentences under Measure 11, the parole board had the power to decide whether to release inmates before they served their full sentences — even those with life sentences. Like Carroll’s, their cases must be handled under the old system.

“There are offenders who have been in for a long time, and their crimes are generally what would be considered very serious,” said Nancy Sellers, executive director of the board. “These are difficult decisions to make for crimes that likely had a big impact on the victims.”

Among the notorious cases:

n Richard W. Godwin, 63, whose parole hearing is scheduled for Sept. 24. He raped and decapitated a 5-year-old girl in rural Lane County — and kept her skull on his bedside table. He is seeking release after nearly 30 years in prison. He’s been turned down repeatedly.

n Elizabeth Diane Downs, 53, convicted of shooting and killing her 7-year-old daughter and trying to kill her two other children outside Springfield in 1983. Her case was the subject of Ann Rule’s book “Small Sacrifices,” later made into a TV miniseries with Farrah Fawcett. Downs was sentenced to life plus 55 years but is eligible for release next year. Her parole hearing is expected in December.

Partly in response to the Gillmore case, the board convened a work group to recommend changes, such as providing better public notice.

In the case of Tina Marie Jones, Carroll got Cunningham’s permission to take the girl for a walk. He took the girl to Oaks Bottom, a nature preserve. When she refused his sexual advances, he stabbed her to death.

Carroll had no criminal record, but he revealed to investigators and doctors that he had an elaborate and violent fantasy life.

He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to life and has repeatedly asked for a reduced sentence.

Cunningham said she has attended more than a half-dozen hearings to testify against that.

“It’s really, really important he stays behind bars,” she said. “I know how sick he is.”