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Thread: Antoinette Renee Frank - Louisiana Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    This case has bothered me since I saw a show about it years ago...probably one of the more diabolical and ruthless woman killers on death row. Can anybody give me an update as to her status since she received a stay in 2008? I know the wheels of justice turn slowly, but come now, Louisiana needs to get things rolling on this woman.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #12
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    Spinning their wheels on death row

    By James Gill
    The New Orleans Advocate

    Len Davis is on federal death row, while Antoinette Frank awaits execution at the state prison in St. Gabriel.

    The similarities are uncanny. Both were New Orleans police officers when they were arrested for unrelated, but equally vicious, murders. Each enlisted a mentally disabled accomplice. Each seems destined to be with us forever. Davis and his sidekick Paul Hardy were convicted in 1994, Frank and Rogers LaCaze a year later.

    The latest ruling in the case of LaCaze came only last week from the state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, on the federal front, we are waiting with bated breath for document No. 2466 in the Davis saga. No. 2465, filed Feb. 15, was the government's response to a request for an evidentiary hearing about something or other. Defense counsel has to keep the wheels turning in a capital case, but this is a case record to set the eyes spinning in any normal head.

    Trial judge Ginger Berrigan sentenced Hardy and Davis to death, but the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently ruled that executing the mentally disabled violates the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment.

    After a woman called Kim Groves complained to NOPD's Internal Affairs that he had pistol-whipped a teenager on the street, Davis ordered Hardy to kill her. When Hardy shot Groves outside her home and called a jubilant Davis on his cell phone, FBI agents investigating a drug ring picked up their conversation.

    That, and other wiretaps adduced at trial, left no room for doubt about guilt, but Berrigan was obliged to resentence Hardy 17 years later because tests showed his IQ was not high enough to qualify for execution. Davis is clearly in no immediate danger either, as the documents pile up, but then a ripe old age is par for the course these days on death row, state or federal.

    State judge Frank Marullo sentenced Frank and LaCaze to death for the murders of Cuong Vy and Ha Vu, at their family's restaurant in New Orleans East, along with New Orleans police officer Ronald Williams, who was working a detail there. Police never did recover the gun used in the murder or the $10,000 that was missing.

    Frank and LaCaze were convicted largely on the strength of testimony from other members of the restaurant family who had hidden in a cooler. It emerged at Frank's trial, which came after LaCaze's, that Frank had obtained a 9 mm gun — the type used in the murder — from the NOPD evidence room per an order that bore Marullo's signature. Marullo at a meeting with counsel in his chambers during Frank's trial, claimed that was a forgery and said he had given a handwriting sample to an expert to prove it.

    When LaCaze challenged his appeal from death row, he cited Marullo's name on the release as evidence of bias. The case was transferred to an ad hoc judge and Marullo, called to testify, denied signing the release but could not remember anything about a handwriting sample.

    LaCaze's conviction and sentence were thrown out, but not on account of the gun. It was because one of the jurors at his trial failed to disclose that he had been a cop. District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro then asked the appeal court to reinstate the conviction, but not the death sentence, which would almost certainly not have stood in the long run anyway. LaCaze's IQ is about the same as Hardy's. The appeal court duly ruled as Cannizzaro requested, and the state Supreme Court agreed that LaCaze had received a fair trial, whatever was the truth about the gun.

    It was, back in the day, standard practice for judges to make confiscated firearms available to law enforcement. Besides, the jury in Frank's case knew that Marullo's name was on order assigning her the gun, and it didn't do her any good.

    Then, last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a reconsideration of the LaCaze verdict to determine whether the gun order rendered the “probability of actual bias” too high to be “constitutionally tolerable.” The justices of the state Supreme Court responded with a profound and learned analysis last week that concluded they had been absolutely right the first time.

    So the LaCaze case seems to be finally closed. Davis and Frank just stay put.

    http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orlea...72194d8cb.html

  3. #13
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    The Only Woman on Louisiana’s Death Row Is Getting One Last Shot at Clemency

    Antoinette Frank, who was convicted of a triple-murder in 1995, hopes details about her traumatic history of abuse could ultimately spare her life

    By The Messenger

    The last woman on Louisiana's death row is hoping that details about her traumatic history of abuse could ultimately spare her life.Next month, Antoinette Frank is set to go before the state's pardon board to present crucial details about her past, which were kept hidden from the jury who sentenced her to be executed.


    Frank, 52, a former New Orleans police officer, was convicted in 1995 of the triple murder of an off-duty New Orleans police officer and the owners of a Vietnamese restaurant during a botched robbery.


    While she has largely been painted as a corrupt cop and mastermind of the crimes, Frank’s legal team says she has a long, painful history of being subjected to sexual, physical and emotional abuse. They argue that history gives a fuller picture of what led to the killings.

    “Antoinette’s trial lawyers failed to do the most basic investigation into her tragic history of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the hands of her father," Letty Di Giulio, Frank’s attorney said. "As a result, neither the jury that sentenced her to death nor the people of Louisiana knew the truth about Antoinette."


    Her clemency hearing, which is scheduled for Oct 13, will be the first of 19 hearings spurred by the mass appeal of 56 out of the 57 death row inmates who simultaneously filed a clemency plea in June.

    Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who will leave office in January, directed the board last month to consider granting clemency, citing his “deep faith” and “pro-life stance against the death penalty."


    Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a front runner to become the state's next governor, staunchly opposes mass clemency.Landry has expressed support for the death penalty, saying that he would bring back firing squads and the electric chair to carry out the executions, which have been on hold because of a problems procuring the usual cocktail of lethal injection drugs.


    Manipulated by Men


    Frank, described as a “gentle and timid” natured person by her attorney, went through “horrific abuse by her own father that left her vulnerable to being manipulated and coerced."

    Frank's father had severe post traumatic stress disorder as a Vietnam veteran and created an atmosphere of terror, filled with violent rages and death threats to his family in her childhood home, according to her clemency petition.

    He admitted to the Veterans Administration that he choked and threw Frank across the room when she was two years old. Instead of being removed from him, she stayed with her father who began raping her from nine until the age of 22, which resulted in multiple abortions.


    Her mother eventually walked out taking three of her four children, but leaving Frank behind at the insistence of her husband. At that point, every aspect of her life was controlled by her father, including bathroom use until the age of 19, her petition stated.


    Details about this childhood trauma was not included in the death penalty trial.


    Two jurors who sentenced Frank to death said that had they known about her abuse as a child and “her psychological makeup” they would not have given the death penalty, according to sworn affidavits.


    2 Shooters, 1 Death Sentence


    Frank's lawyers say her history of being abused also allowed her conspirator, Rogers LaCaze, to manipulate her.

    Frank, then 23, had befriended LaCaze, then 18, after meeting him during the course of an investigation. Being just a few years older, she wanted to mentor him towards a better life, but he took advantage of her naive and sheltered personality, using her position of power for his own personal gain, according to Frank's petition.


    Although local media reports referred to LaCaze as Frank's boyfriend, Di Giulio says that their relationship was not romantic.


    On March 4, 1995, Frank went inside Kim Anh restaurant in New Orleans where she frequently split private security with fellow officer Ronald Williams.


    According to court records, after Frank went in looking for the restaurant owners, LaCaze followed.


    In the minutes after, shots were fired killing Williams, and siblings Ha and Cuong Vu.


    At trial there was no evidence that showed who fired the deadly shots and both Frank and LaCaze were convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and given the death penalty.


    But the full account was not presented to jurors, according to Frank's lawyer, Di Giulio.


    In a 2013 post-conviction hearing for LaCaze, a state witness testified that he told her that Frank tried to shield the victims from him, but that he “put the [gun] to the back of Antoinette's head and said, ‘B, you gon’ shoot somebody too. I’m not going down by myself,’” which prompted her to pull the trigger.


    Frank told police that she shot at Ha and Cuong Vu that night but didn't know if she hit them.


    In 2019, LaCaze's conviction was reversed based on ineffective assistance of counsel and he was resentenced to life imprisonment.


    So Frank alone now faces execution. If given clemency, Frank's conviction would also be commuted to life without parole.


    Chau Vu, the sister of the victims who was present on the day of killings but survived after hiding in a freezer, did not return a request for comment by The Messenger.


    In a 2019 interview in response to LaCaze’s resentencing with The Advocate shesaid she wanted to “close the book and open a new chapter in my life, just close the book” as it “brings back all my anger and everything."


    “It’s just something already wrapped up."

    https://themessenger.com/news/the-only-woman-on-louisianas-death-row-is-getting-one-last-shot-at-clemmency
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #14
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    Wasn't this woman also a suspect in her father's murder? As I remember his skeletal remains being found buried in her family home's basement, there is a bullet hole in his skull. If he abused her, she highly likely started her murder spree with her father and continued with her police colleague and restaurant owners.

  5. #15
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Louisiana pardon board denies clemency hearings to five on death row

    The decision ends efforts to spare more than 50 people awaiting execution

    By Richard A. Webster
    Louisiana Illuminator

    The Louisiana state Board of Pardons voted Friday against granting clemency hearings to five Louisiana death row prisoners, ending a monthslong effort to spare the lives of more than 50 people condemned to death.

    Over four hours, the four-member panel in Baton Rouge heard impassioned testimony from attorneys, from still-grieving families of murder victims and from friends and relatives of the prisoners themselves. The board ultimately split the vote 2-2 in four cases, leading to denials, with members Tony Marabella and Bonnie Jackson voting in favor of granting clemency hearings and Curtis Fremin and Alvin Roche, Jr. voting against.

    The board denied a fifth case — Winthrop Earl Eaton, convicted in the 1985 killing of Monroe pastor Rev. Lea Joyner — in a 3-1 vote, with Marabella the lone member voting to grant the hearing.

    Initial plans to hold clemency hearings — and vote on whether to commute the prisoners’ sentences from death to life — at Friday’s meeting were derailed after conservative Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and several parish district attorneys sued the board. Under a settlement agreement, rather than voting on whether to commute, the panel met to consider whether allow them to have their cases heard at a future hearing.

    There are currently no plans to consider an additional 51 clemency requests, despite Gov. John Bel Edwards’ support of hearings for all 56 death row prisoners who applied.

    Edwards, who, as governor, makes the final decision on recommendations from the board, kicked up a political storm earlier this year when he publicly stated his opposition to the death penalty. Capital defense attorneys responded by seeking to have the sentences of up to 56 death row prisoners commuted to life, while a group of pro-death penalty prosecutors, led by Landry, sought to stymie those efforts.

    Landry, the leading candidate in the upcoming election for governor, has expressed his desire to move forward with the executions of those on death row, something that hasn’t happened in Louisiana since 2010 due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs.

    In voting to grant the clemency hearings, Jackson and Marabella noted that the applicants met the guideline requirements by having a clean record in prison for at least two years, among other provisions.

    Roche and Fremin, in explaining their votes to deny, each noted the heinous nature of the applicants’ crimes. Among the prisoners whose requests were denied Friday was Antoinette Frank, the only woman on death row in Louisiana.

    Frank, a New Orleans police officer at the time of her crime, was convicted in 1995 of killing fellow officer Ronald Williams II during an armed robbery of a New Orleans East restaurant where she worked part-time as a security guard. Also killed were two members of the business owners’ family: 17-year-old Cuong Vu and 24-year-old Ha Vu.

    The four other applicants were Eaton, Clifford Deruise, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the killings of 11-month-old Etienne NaChampassak and 20-year-old Gary Booker in New Orleans; Danny Irish, convicted of the 1996 murder of his landlord Russ Rowland in Caddo Parish; and Emmett Taylor, convicted of the 1997 murder of Marie Toscano in Jefferson Parish.

    Roche said that should the death row prisoners be granted clemency by the governor and have their sentences reduced to life, they would be able to apply for a reduction in that life sentence in five years, which would eventually make them eligible for parole.

    And that was something he could not abide by.

    “This isn’t about being compassionate,” Roche said in explaining his reason for denying Frank a clemency hearing. “This is about creating an avenue, an interstate for this applicant to be released on parole."

    From 56 to 5

    All but one of the 57 people currently on death row applied for clemency hearings last summer.
    In August, after Edwards instructed the Board of Pardons to begin hearing the cases, the board scheduled four separate hearings starting Friday to consider 20 applications.

    The following month, prosecutors including Landry and East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore sued to prevent any application from moving forward. In his suit, Landry cited a procedural bar that he said prohibits the board from considering applications more than one year after a court had ruled on motions for appeal.

    This is where things took a somewhat strange turn. The attorney representing the board asked Landry to recuse himself, stating it was improper for him to sue another state agency. Landry responded by firing that attorney and appointing another of his choosing.

    The new attorney for the board then hammered out a settlement with Landry’s office allowing the first of the five scheduled applications to be heard, and no more.

    At Friday’s hearing, the family and friends of those on death row stressed that the convicted killers were not the same people they were at the time of their crimes and had dedicated their time in prison to repenting and improving their lives.

    They also highlighted the physical, sexual and emotional abuse they suffered as children, in addition to significant mental and intellectual disabilities. A clinical psychologist described the abuse Frank suffered at the hands of her father as “catastrophic,” while
    Deruise’s attorney said he had an I.Q of 74 due to a number of head injuries he suffered as a child, including a fall off a second-floor balcony in the old St. Thomas Housing Development.

    Danna Nachampassak, the mother of slain 11-month-old Etienne, wept throughout much of the proceedings as she held a poster-sized photo of her lost son. When she addressed the board members, she said she felt compassion for Deruise and the life he experienced prior to the moment he killed her child during a carjacking. But she echoed the same sentiments expressed by other family members who represented the victims at Friday’s hearing.

    “There’s no second chance for Etienne,” she said. “(Deruise) never once showed mercy or remorse to me.”

    https://lailluminator.com/2023/10/14...ncy-death-row/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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