A crooked cop who killed a pimp and a prostitute could be on the verge of tasting freedom for the first time in more than 30 years. A Manhattan judge has ordered the state parole board to free William Phillips, whose star turn before the Knapp Commission helped lead to his arrest for on-the-job crimes.

"At this point, it's just a matter of time," said Dan Perez, an attorney for Phillips. "There is more optimism now than we've ever had."

Now 76, one-eyed and ailing, Phillips years ago was a decorated cop who helped expose police corruption before the Knapp Commission, which investigated police corruption in the 1970s.

Then, in 1974, he was convicted of killing two people and shooting a witness during a 1968 shakedown for protection money.

While imprisoned for the murders of pimp James Smith and teenage hooker Susan Stango, Phillips has earned two degrees and transformed himself into a jailhouse lawyer.

It's a turnaround from his days as a rogue cop, when he shook down marks that included the East Side madam who became known as the Happy Hooker.

If Phillips gets out, Perez said, he has standing offers to live with a Quaker family and to teach at a Westchester college.

"He continues to not be a threat," Perez said.

The state parole board has already denied Phillips parole four times, most recently in September 2005. But the order by State Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman not only orders the board to grant Phillips a new hearing, but to turn him loose.

In her decision, which was made public yesterday, Friedman wrote that the board's most recent rejection of Phillips' parole was "so irrational as to border on impropriety."

Scott Steinhardt, a spokesman for the state Division of Parole, said he could not comment on a pending case. But the state could opt to appeal, Perez said.

"At some point, he's either going to die or he's going to get out," Perez said. "We're sort of racing to beat the specter of death."