Frances Choy (above) was exonerated today of charges stemming from the 2003 火 in her Brockton home that claimed the lives of her parents Jimmy and Anne Trinh Choy, 来自香港和越南的中国移民. 根据国家免罪登记, Frances is the first woman of color exonerated in Massachusetts since 1989, 她是该州第一位被无罪释放的亚裔美国人.
She served seventeen years in prison for these crimes that she did not commit.
Frances’ exoneration follows the September 17 order by Plymouth County Superior Court Judge Linda Giles vacating her convictions of arson and first degree murder based on new evidence of her innocence, including evidence that someone else confessed to the crime and scientific evidence contradicting trial testimony of a state police chemist. Judge Giles presided over the 2011 trial and sentenced Choy to serve two life-without-parole sentences.
在她9月17日的裁决中, Judge Giles also identified prosecutorial and police misconduct as reasons for vacating Choy’s convictions. The Court found that former Plymouth County Assistant District Attorneys John Bradley and Karen O’Sullivan who prosecuted Choy exchanged emails exhibiting “anti-Asian bias against [Ms. (), 她的家人, all Asian-Americans” and that if the Court had been aware of “their racially and sexually degrading emails” the Court “would have declared a mistrial” and directed that they “be removed from the case and that District Attorney Cruz be made aware of their racially and sexually degrading emails.”
Judge Giles further found that the trial prosecutors introduced false testimony, 未能交出无罪的证据, presented false and misleading arguments to the court and to the jury, 违反了法庭命令.
在4月17日, 2003, 火, Frances was a 17-year-old college-bound high school senior looking forward to her senior prom; yet the same day that she became orphaned and homeless, she was arrested by Brockton Police and subsequently charged with first degree murder and arson. Choy was subjected to three trials before she was eventually convicted in 2011. The first two trials resulted in mistrials when the jurors did not agree unanimously on a verdict. Her convictions were vacated following years of investigation and litigation by Choy’s lawyers to gain access to the emails showing the trial prosecutors’ racial bias and other exculpatory evidence. The Plymouth County District Attorney’s office ultimately produced those materials, 不反对释放弗朗西丝, 同意撤销对她的定罪, 撤销了对她的指控.
请联系置评, 弗朗西斯·崔表示:“我要感谢我的律师, 我的家人, 还有我的朋友们一直相信我是无辜的. It has been a tough and long journey, but their support helped me stay strong and never give up hope. Nothing can erase the pain of losing my parents and how they suffered. 我每天都想念他们. Even in prison I tried to live my life in a way that honored them. I’m relieved that the truth has been revealed and to have my life back beyond prison walls.”
蔡的代理律师是律师John J. 波士顿的易货商人和莎伦·贝克曼教授 波士顿大学无罪计划 在波士顿大学法学院. “We are pleased that Frances is exonerated and home with 她的家人, we are grateful that the District Attorney joined us in asking the Court to vacate her convictions and terminated the prosecution.易货说. “然而, 弗朗西丝失去了父母，这是一个悲剧, 然后被指控杀害了他们, 经过反复试验, deprived for years after her conviction of access to evidence that supported her innocence.”
Beckman stated: “Frances was an innocent crime victim who was instead treated like a criminal suspect. Her wrongful conviction resulted from racism and other official misconduct and systemic failures. Frances 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.”
莎拉·卡罗, a 2020 BC 法律 graduate who worked on Choy’s case in the BC Innocence Program, added: “It has been an honor to represent Frances Choy. Despite living through the unimaginable, she never lost hope. 她的韧性是无与伦比的。. I look forward to seeing all she will accomplish moving forward.”
An interdisciplinary team of Boston College students and faculty contributed to Ms. Choy’s exoneration through their clinical and service work in the 波士顿大学无罪计划. 法律 Professors Charlotte Whitmore and Claire Donohue and 法律 students Ye-Eun Sung ’22, Rachel Feit ' 20, Eric Jepeal ' 20, 艾米丽·史密斯20岁, 杰西·吉宾斯19岁, 安妮·李19岁, 和19岁的马修·索耶都是Ms. 蔡的法律团队. Amanda Savadian ’20 supported the legal team as a social service advocate while earning her masters degree in the Graduate School of Social Work. Undergraduates Berlindyne Elie ’21 and Carolina Tiru ’20 provided paralegal as part of the legal team in the service component of Philosophy Professor Marina McCoy’s PULSE program elective Mass Incarceration: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives.