Rapist granted parole hearing just months after conviction

For 33 years, Amy has lived with the trauma of a 1992 Valentine’s Day rape in Virginia, a cold case that finally cracked last year when DNA evidence linked the crime to a convicted rapist.In September 2025, Anthony Favors, 57, who initially faced six indictments, including abduction and burglary, took a plea deal for two counts of rape to secure a 24-year prison sentence.Norfolk Judge Everett A.

Martin Jr.ordered 12 years for each count to run consecutively.Months later, Amy received an automated VINE text that Virginia’s parole board planned to review Favors’ case for possible release.“I finally get some sort of closure and justice.

And then I get a text,” Amy told Fox News Digital.“Nobody yet has told me how he’s even eligible for parole.”Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi confirmed to Fox News Digital that Favors will likely have a “discretionary parole hearing” within the next few months.Fatehi explained that a bureaucratic overlap triggered the hearing: the parole board previously considered Favors for release on a previous rape conviction but never granted it, legally opening the door for the upcoming review.“It’s discretionary because he had been locked up for so long.

He is theoretically eligible,” Fatehi said.Favors was serving a 60-year sentence for a separate March 1992 rape when a 2024 DNA hit linked him to Amy’s case.Since he committed his offenses before Jan.

1, 1995, Virginia’s old sentencing laws authorized the Virginia Parole Board to consider him for release.Fatehi said that there is a “slim chance to zero” of actually releasing Favors, but the possibility of an impending hearing left Amy reeling.“The only word I can think of right now, honestly, is disgusting,” she said.“It’s wrong.

How can you do that? Where is my justice?”The attack altered the course of Amy’s life.Favors beat and assaulted the active-duty Navy sailor for hours at her Norfolk apartment.

Despite the trauma, she repor...