Woman, 34, who spent 17 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murdering her parents in a house fire, is first woman of color exonerated in Massachusetts after prosecutors' racist emails are revealed
A Massachusetts woman has been exonerated 17 years after she was locked up for the murder of her parents following the discovery of emails that showed prosecutors exchanging 'jokes about Asian stereotypes and mocking caricatures of Asians using imperfect English.'
Frances Choy – who is Asian-American - was convicted in 2011 of murdering her parents Jimmy and Anne Choy by burning down their house in April 2003, but her 16-year-old nephew later confessed to his involvement.
Frances – whose parents were from Hong Kong and Vietnam - was released this year and finally cleared Tuesday with her attorneys believing she's the first woman of color to be exonerated in the state.
Plymouth County District Attorney filed a nolle prosequi Tuesday saying that they wouldn't request a fourth trial.
Frances Choy (pictured in an undated photo) was convicted in 2011 of murdering her parents Jimmy and Ann Choy by burning down their house in April 2003. She was released this month after 17 years and is now 34 years old
Prosecutor John Bradley left the DA's office in 2012 and sued the DA over his termination. The emails he was involved in included comparison to a stereotypical character in the movie Sixteen Candles. He and a colleague mocked caricatures of Asians using imperfect English
Frances was 17 when she and Kenneth were rescued by firefighters from the burning home in Brockton and she was arrested on two counts of first-degree murder and arson in 2003. There were two mistrials.
Her nephew Kenneth Choy was later convicted after he told a friend he planned to set fire to the home as revenge for Jimmy – his grandfather from another relationship – beating him when he suspected he was dealing drugs.
Frances was granted a mistrial in 2008 however Kenneth was exonerated a month later. He testified under immunity that Frances came up with the scheme and he backed out.
In 2009, Kenneth had also set fires at the home after he was released and while Frances was locked up. That prompted a prosecutor to email her colleague, 'I think you should just [drop] Frances's case right now.'
Kenneth fled to Hong Kong before the third trial in 2011.
Judge Linda Giles – who presided over the trial where Frances got two life sentences - wrote in her decision on September 17 about how trial prosecutors exchanged 'numerous images of Asian people, some accompanied by pejorative comments and some unexplained.'
The racist comments included comparison to a stereotypical character in the movie Sixteen Candles.
Giles wrote in her decision that in one exchange about a hearing before the state Supreme Judicial Court, a prosecutor told a colleague she would be 'wearing a cheongsam and will be the one doing origami in the back of the courtroom.'
Frances was 17 when she was wrongly accused. One prosecutor wrote that she would be 'wearing a cheongsam and will be the one doing origami in the back of the courtroom'
Police had claimed Frances confessed but they didn't have recording capabilities and only an affidavit.
Police said that when they questioned Kenneth about two notes he'd written about how to set the house on fire he claimed Frances told him to do it. However a former detective later claimed it was a lie and they did have the ability to record.
She also listed other instances of misconduct including failure to pursue other leads. Kenneth's friend was not interviewed after it emerged he had confessed.
Kenneth Choy's friend was not interviewed after it emerged he had confessed to the fire. He also set fire to the home in 2009 after he was released from prison then fled to Hong Kong
The judge also noted failure by Choy's attorney to recruit an expert witness chemist which could have cast doubt that there was gasoline residue on her pants.
State police chemist John Drugan said there was residue on her sweatpants but Kenneth wasn't tested at all.
'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 least credible witness, Frances was disadvantaged by a range of circumstances, procedures and rulings,' Giles wrote.
Karen O'Sullivan now works in the Bristol County District Attorney's Office and John Bradley left the office in 2012 and sued the DA over his termination.
The DA's office had previously called the emails between Karen O'Sullivan and John Bradley 'reprehensible' and 'horrific,' noting that they had tried to give racial bias training.
The judge wrote that Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz 'has taken steps to provide training that is intended to increase awareness of conscious and unconscious bias and to ensure that his professional staff adheres to the highest professional and ethical standards.'
O'Sullivan now works in the Bristol County District Attorney's Office and Bradley left the office in 2012 and sued the DA over his termination.
Judge Linda Giles, who presided over the trial that convicted Frances in 2011, appeared in a virtual hearing on Tuesday and praised the attorneys for 'their diligent efforts over the years in the interest of justice.' The judge added: 'To Frances, Godspeed'
Boston College Innocence Program at Boston College Law School represented Frances in the appeal and Boston College Law School professor Sharon Beckman, said the 'wrongful conviction resulted from racism and other official misconduct and systemic failures.'
They fought five years to get the emails released and they only came out last year after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered the DA to release them.
'Usually it's hard to prove bias or show a violation of the Constitution based on racism, but what's unusual in this case is that the emails show what the prosecutors were thinking. They wrote their discrimination down.'
'She can never get back the 17 years the criminal legal system took from her, but we are overjoyed at her exoneration and hope her case will inspire meaningful reform,' Beckman said.
Beckman said Frances was 'an innocent crime victim who was instead treated like a criminal suspect.'
'Nothing can erase the pain of losing my parents and how they suffered. I miss them every day. Even in prison I tried to live my life in a way that honored them,' Frances said. 'I'm relieved that the truth has been revealed and to have my life back beyond prison walls.'
Boston College Innocence Program at Boston College Law School represented Frances in the appeal and Boston College Law School professor Sharon Beckman, said the 'wrongful conviction resulted from racism and other official misconduct and systemic failures'
'Today's outcome was the culmination of hundreds of hours of diligence by prosecutors in my office working cooperatively with appellate counsel to identify a number of significant legal issues that we could not ignore,' Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said in a statement to WBUR.
'The role of every prosecutor is to ensure that justice is done. Fairness not only dictated our decision today, but is central to every decision we make.'
'This may be the first case in the U.S. where a murder conviction has been thrown out because of racism on the part of prosecutors,' attorney John Barter said.
'It is tragic that Frances lost her parents, and was then charged with their death, pursued through repeated trials, and deprived for years after her conviction of access to evidence that supported her innocence.
'Despite the fact that as a 17-year-old she was sent off to prison and charged with a crime she didn't commit, she's a remarkable person who doesn't seem to have any bitterness toward the world. She's just looking forward to living her life quietly.'
The judge appeared in a virtual hearing on Tuesday and praised the attorneys for 'their diligent efforts over the years in the interest of justice.'
The judge added in a video obtained by CBS Boston: 'To Frances, Godspeed.'
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