Who is Frances Choy? Woman exonerated after 17 years in prison over wrongful conviction in parents' fire death
An Asian-American woman from Massachusetts, Frances Choy, was exonerated on Tuesday, September 29, after being imprisoned for nearly 17 years for the murder of her own parents. She was set free following the discovery of emails that showed the prosecutors — Karen O'Sullivan and John Bradley — engaging in racist exchange, including "jokes about Asian stereotypes and mocking caricatures of Asians using imperfect English."
Frances was convicted in 2012 for killing her parents, Jimmy and Anne Choy, by burning down their house in April 2003. The crime, however, was later confessed by her 16-year-old nephew Kenneth Choy. Frances was just 17-year-old when she and Kenneth were rescued by firefighters from their burning house in Brockton. Frances' parents died in the blaze. Shortly after, the teen was arrested on two counts of first-degree murder and arson in 2003, and there were two mistrials. As the case continued, the girl's nephew was convicted after he confessed to a friend that he had planned to set fire to the house as revenge for Jimmy beating him when he suspected he was dealing drugs.
Nearly five years later, Frances was granted a mistrial in 2008, however, Kenneth was exonerated a month later after he testified under immunity that it was Frances who had schemed the blaze but later backed out of the plan. Kenneth, in 2009, also reportedly set fire at another house after he was released while Frances was imprisoned. The incident prompted a prosecutor to email one of her colleagues, writing: "I think you should just [drop] Frances's case right now." Shortly before the third trial in the case, Kenneth reportedly fled to Hong Kong.
Frances was released this year and was finally cleared of her crimes on Tuesday, as her attorneys said that their client is the first woman of color to be exonerated in the state. A nolle prosequi — a formal notice of abandonment of the case — was filed by the Plymouth County District Attorney on Tuesday, who said that they won't request for a fourth trial in the case.
Judge Linda Giles, who presided over the trial where Frances was given two life sentences, wrote on September 17 in her decision that the prosecutors in the trial exchanged "numerous images of Asian people, some accompanied by pejorative comments and some unexplained." The racist comments also drew comparisons from an Asian character in the film 'Sixteen Candles'.
Police in the case had reportedly claimed that Frances confessed to the crime but they did not have recording capabilities at the time and used an affidavit instead. The authorities also said that they questioned Kenneth about two notes he had written about how to set the house on fire and he claimed that Frances had told him to do so. A former detective in the case, however, later claimed that officials had lied at the time and they did have the ability to record.
The judge, in her statement, also mentioned other instances of misconduct, including the authorities' failure to pursue other leads involving Kenneth. They reportedly did not interview his friends after it emerged that he had confessed the crime to them. Judge Giles also pointed out that Frances' attorney failed to recruit an expert chemist as witness in the case, who could have cast doubt over the presence of gasoline residue on her pants. State police chemist John Drugan had stated at the time that Frances had gasoline residue on her sweatpants, however, authorities at the time did not test Kenneth at all.
Judge Giles added: "It is evident that from the time that Frances was questioned by the State and Brockton Police as a seventeen-year-old, and through her third trial where the Commonwealth, at the eleventh hour, substituted a role-play of a transcript for their most important, but the least credible witness, Frances was disadvantaged by a range of circumstances, procedures, and rulings."
The prosecutors in the case, Karen O'Sullivan, now works in the Bristol County District Attorney's Office, while John Bradley, who left the office in 2012, has sued the DA over his termination.