A Norfolk survivor said she was blindsided after receiving an automated VINE text notifying her that the Virginia Parole Board plans to review the case of convicted rapist Anthony Favors for possible release, she told Fox News Digital.
Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi told Fox News Digital that Favors will likely have a “discretionary parole hearing” within the next few months, and that a prior parole consideration on a separate conviction created the legal eligibility for the upcoming review.
Fox News Digital reported that in September 2025 Favors, 57, took a plea deal on two counts of rape and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Norfolk Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. ordered 12 years for each count to run consecutively. Favors initially faced six indictments, including abduction and burglary.
The report says Favors was already serving a 60-year sentence for a separate March 1992 rape when a 2024 DNA hit linked him to the Valentine’s Day 1992 attack on the survivor identified only as “Amy.” Because the offenses occurred before Jan. 1, 1995, Fox News Digital said Virginia’s older sentencing laws allow the Virginia Parole Board to consider him for 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.” The article said the assault altered her life, that she reported directly to her Navy ship shift after the attack and has since suffered severe PTSD, chronic sleep deprivation and hypervigilance.
Amy told Fox News Digital she plans to ask the parole board for a three-year deferral so she would not be required to relive the attack annually. The report said she fears the prospect of a hearing will force her to re-explain the assault and could undermine public trust in the justice system.
Heather Keeley, director of the nonprofit Stand Tall, told Fox News Digital that survivors are often retraumatized by parole proceedings. Keeley was quoted saying that a 24-year sentence “wouldn’t even put him up for parole 12 years later” and questioned how a hearing could arise so soon after the sentencing.
Fatehi told Fox News Digital there is a “slim chance to zero” that Favors will be released, but that the upcoming review remains possible because of previous administrative action on an earlier conviction.
Fox News Digital noted the Virginia Parole Board does not publicly list its full hearing schedule but posts monthly parole decisions on its official website. The report said Favors’ defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment and that Fox News Digital reached out to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
