Jones said she broke the news gently to Townsend, 49, during a Sunday phone call he made from the Polk Correctional Institution. He has served more than 21 years in prison and is still serving life sentences for two other Broward murders, and two murders and a rape in Miami-Dade County.

Prosecutors have conceded those other convictions are questionable because they stem from the same confessions Townsend made, some of which have been proven untrue, and the fact prosecutors used crimes Townsend did not commit to convict him in the other cases.

The Broward State Attorney's Office is still evaluating the remaining Broward convictions to see whether there is any evidence to uphold them. Miami-Dade prosecutors also plan to review their Townsend convictions. No DNA is available for testing in some of the cases.