Disabled man freed after 22 years

Jerry Frank Townsend had served 22 years in prison

A mentally disabled man, once thought to have been a serial killer and rapist, has been freed after 22 years in prison following the lifting of all convictions against him.

A judge on Friday ordered the immediate release of Jerry Frank Townsend from a Florida prison where he was serving a life sentence for six murders and a rape.

It is abundantly clear that he is the victim of an enormous tragedy

Judge Scott Silverman

"Given the preferred deficiency in the state's evidence, a lack of trust in its evidence including the obtained confession, and in some cases what may very well be Mr Townsend's outright innocence, it is abundantly clear that he is the victim of an enormous tragedy," said Judge Scott Silverman.

The district attorney of Miami-Dade County dropped charges against Mr Townsend in connection with the murder of two women and the rape of a third in Miami-Dade in the late 1970s, after new police investigations failed to establish proof against him.

The prisoner, who has the mental capacity of an eight-year old, was cleared in May of the four other murders, which happened in Broward County.

He was released from the Polk Correctional Institution near Lakeland at 2155 on Friday (0255 GMT), according to prison officials.

Latest reports said he remained inside the prison lobby with his mother and sister waiting for another relative before leaving.

DNA testing

DNA testing has established his innocence in two of the murders, while in two others it was found that police had induced his videotaped confession.

His defence lawyers say Mr Townsend only told detectives he had committed the crimes because he wanted to please them.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said on Thursday that even though she believed Mr Townsend was guilty of rape and one of the Miami-Dade murders, the convictions had to be set aside because he had only agreed to plead guilty because of the Broward convictions.

She said she could not retry the cases because evidence had since been destroyed and the rape victim and witnesses could not be found.

The order to release Mr Townsend came a few days after the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, signed a law banning the execution of mentally disabled people.