Tommie Lee Andrews, the first person in the U.S. to be convicted of rape because of DNA evidence, is set to be released from a Florida treatment facility where he has been held since his release from prison in 2012.
A judge signed an order Friday granting Andrews release from the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia.
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Andrews was sent to the facility under Florida’s Jimmy Ryce Act when he was 49 years old. That act provides for the civil confinement of a group of sexual offenders who — due to their criminal history and the presence of mental abnormality — are found likely to engage in future acts of sexual violence if they are not confined in a secure facility for long-term control, care, and treatment, according to the state.
A jury decided he was likely to commit another act of sexual violence when he was originally set to be released from prison after nearly 25 years behind bars in Oct. 2012.
Andrews was originally convicted in 1988 of two rapes; however, investigators had said that the same serial rapist was responsible for as many as 23 attacks in the Orlando area.
Andrews was originally sentenced to more than 100 years in prison but due to some loopholes in state law and credit he received for good behavior, Andrews served only 25 years.