Antoinette Frank
Encyclopedia
Antoinette Frank is a former New Orleans police
officer who was convicted of one of the most notorious crimes in recent New Orleans history: the robbery
of a restaurant where she worked as a security guard
, and the murder
s of three people, including her partner on the police force, who was also a security guard at the restaurant. Frank is one of two women on Louisiana
's death row at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
in St. Gabriel, Louisiana
.
, but she had wanted to become a police officer since she was a small girl. Frank was from a broken family: her brother was a fugitive, her father would appear in her life occasionally, and Frank became distressed about these issues, needing psychiatric help. Frank has claimed that her father abused her sexually, mentally, and physically when she was a child.
According to author Chuck Hustmyre
, a former federal agent and author of a book about Frank, Killer with a Badge, when Frank applied to become a police officer in Louisiana, she lied about her psychological problems.
(NOPD) in 1993. Several red flags turned up during the hiring process. She'd been caught lying on several sections of her application, and had flunked two standard psychiatric evaluations. Psychologist Phillip Scurria examined her, and advised in no uncertain terms that she not be hired, saying she was "shallow and superficial". When it looked like her application was stalling despite protesting Scurria's evaluation, she left a suicide note and disappeared for over a day.
Despite this, the NOPD was chronically short-handed, and desperate to get more people on the force. Even with this shortage, then as now, the department does not hire anyone who doesn't live in New Orleans. Accordingly, she was hired on February 7, 1993. She graduated from the Police Academy on February 28, 1993.
On November 25, 1994, Frank handled a shooting incident in which Rogers Lacaze, a known drug dealer, was one of the victims. The DOC Department of Public Safety and Corrections investigator believes this was the first contact between the two, although in her statement, she claims that they met some eight months before the murder. The association between them became close and constant. Other police officers witnessed Lacaze driving her car and even observed him moving her police unit at the scene of an accident she was investigating. On one occasion, Lacaze accompanied her on a complaint call and she introduced him as a “trainee.” There were other times when Lacaze was introduced as her nephew. Frank refused to discuss her relationship with Lacaze during the DOC investigation, except to say that she was trying to help him. When asked why she would continue the relationship knowing that Lacaze had been involved in dealing drugs and in a shooting, she claimed that she would not disassociate herself from him just because of his past. The investigator also questioned Frank about trying to buy 9 mm ammunition for Lacaze at Wal-Mart on the day before the Kim Anh murders. She stated that she was a police officer and that there was nothing wrong with her buying ammunition. According to her statement, she claimed that she and Lacaze were not dating and had never been intimate. Frank refused to discuss anything regarding Officer Williams, the Vus or the murders. Every time the investigator asked her a question, she told him to “look it up in the record,” and asserted her innocence. However, during her interview with the DOC investigator, Frank did claim to have had a male suitor, but refused to go into specifics because he works for the police department.
John Stevens and Anthony Wallace testified in court that they met Rogers Lacaze at a party on February 4, 1995. As the two were leaving the party, a verbal altercation between Stevens and Lacaze ensued. Wallace suggested that they leave, and the two men got in a car and drove several blocks. At that time, a police vehicle pulled the car over. Frank, in police uniform, exited the squad car and told both Wallace and Stevens to get out and go to the back of the car. At that point Wallace saw Lacaze and noticed that he was holding a weapon. According to Stevens, Wallace then rushed Lacaze and the two men began fighting. At that point, both Stevens and Frank also jumped in the fray and the gun went off. Stevens began running and then another man appeared and grabbed both Lacaze and Wallace. Frank then told the bystander that, “Lacaze was the good guy,” and that Wallace was the one causing the problems. Wallace was restrained until a back-up unit arrived on the scene. He was subsequently arrested and charged with attempted murder and armed robbery.
Irvin Bryant, a civil sheriff in 1995, testified that on the evening of February 4, he observed a stopped police vehicle with the lights flashing. He thought that the officer was making a traffic stop, but as he got closer he saw the officer and two black males fighting on the side of the road. At that time Wallace broke away, ran and picked up a Tech 9 semi-automatic weapon out of the grass. Bryant ordered Wallace to drop the gun, which he did immediately. He then restrained Wallace, and Lacaze lunged towards him. He immediately grabbed Lacaze, but Frank informed him that Lacaze was with her and ordered him released. Furthermore, Mr. Bryant was never questioned by police and he never gave a formal statement.
ese restaurant
in New Orleans East. After midnight, as the employees cleaned the closed restaurant, Chau Vu, sister of two of the victims, went into the kitchen to count money. She entered the dining room of the restaurant to pay Officer Ronald A. Williams II
for the night, when she noticed Frank approaching the restaurant.
Frank and LaCaze had been at the restaurant twice earlier in the night to get leftover food to eat. When Chau had let her out on the last visit, she could not find the front door key. With Frank returning again for a third time, Chau sensed something was very wrong, so she ran to the kitchen to hide the money in the microwave
.
Frank entered the front door using the key that she had taken from the restaurant earlier, and walked quickly past Officer Williams, pushing Chau, another of Chau's brothers, Quoc, and a restaurant employee into the doorway of the restaurant's kitchen. Williams started to follow asking them what was the problem when shots rang out.
As Frank turned back to the dining room of the restaurant, Chau grabbed Quoc to hide somewhere. LaCaze had been behind Officer Williams and shot him in the back of the neck, severing his spinal cord, instantly paralyzing him. The officer was shot again in the head and in the middle of his back, as he lay on the floor.
Chau, Quoc, and the employee hid in the rear of a large walk-in cooler in the kitchen, turning out its light as they entered. They did not know the whereabouts of Chau's and Quoc's other sister and brother, Ha and Cuong, who had been sweeping the dining room floors when Frank entered the restaurant. From inside the cooler, Chau and Quoc could partially see the kitchen and the front of the restaurant. Chau initially could see Frank looking for something in the kitchen. As Frank moved out of Chau's line of vision, additional gunshots were fired. Quoc next observed Frank searching where the Vus usually kept their money. Quoc saw Frank walk to the part of the kitchen where the bodies of his brother and sister were later found.
Frank and LaCaze were shouting and demanding the money. Ha and Cuong did not know where Chau had hidden the money. Twenty-one-year-old Ha was shot three times as she knelt pleading for her life and seventeen-year-old Cuong was shot six times and pistol whipped. After Frank and LaCaze left the premises, Quoc emerged from the cooler and ran out the back door of the restaurant to a nearby friend's home to call 911 to report the murders. Chau tried frantically to call 911 on her cell phone, but, being inside the cooler, she could not receive a signal.
Frank dropped off LaCaze at a nearby apartment complex, both knowing that there were witnesses left behind. Frank heard the 911 call on her portable police radio saying that an officer was down at the Kim Anh restaurant. She returned to the scene, parked in the rear, and entered through the back door of the restaurant. She made her way through the kitchen to the dining room where Chau waited for help at the front door. As Chau bolted through the restaurant's front door to the safety of arriving officers, Frank immediately identified herself as a police officer. Chau told Frank that she knew what she had done and cried to the officers that Frank had committed the crimes.
Chau and Frank were questioned in detail while seated at different tables in the restaurant. Frank was taken to police headquarters for additional questioning, where she later confessed to the crimes along with LaCaze. Frank and LaCaze were arrested and charged with first degree murder.
on April 28, 1995. Their trials were severed, and LaCaze was tried first on July 17–21, 1995, found guilty as charged, and sentenced to death. Frank's trial began on September 5, 1995. The evidence against her was so overwhelming that Frank's attorneys did not mount a defense (despite subpoenaing 40 witnesses). On September 12, 1995, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts and recommended the death penalty. She was formally sentenced to death on October 20, 1995 and sent to Death Row at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
, in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, very near Baton Rouge
.Davis, Robert Leon. My visit with Antoinette Frank on death row: convicted cop killer, undated circa 2008-2009.
skull
with a bullet
hole buried under Frank's house. News reports dating back to 2002 state that a psychiatrist testified that Frank's father had repeatedly impregnated her via rape and had compelled her to have multiple abortions. In a 2005 retrospective, Chuck Hustmyre, who wrote a true crime
book about the case, said, "As for those human bones unearthed beneath Frank’s house, so far, authorities have made no serious effort to identify them. The 10-year-old case, they say, remains under investigation."Hustmyre, Chuck. Blue on Blue: Murder, Madness and Betrayal in the NOPD, New Orleans Magazine, February 2005, accessed September 9, 2011. According to Hustmyre, shortly before 2005 and several years after her conviction, Frank began to make statements blaming her father for "years of emotional, physical and sexual abuse at his hands," which accounted for her murder of the police officer and the restaurant workers.
On October 18, 2006, Frank's attorneys
argued before the Louisiana Supreme Court
that her death sentence should be overturned because she was denied state-funded experts to help prepare for the sentencing phase of the trial. On May 22, 2007, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the death penalty should be upheld.
On April 22, 2008, State Judge Frank Marullo signed the death warrant for Antoinette Frank. According to the warrant, Frank was scheduled for execution by lethal injection
on July 15, 2008. In May, however, the Louisiana Supreme Court issued a 90-day stay of execution effective June 10 pending ongoing appeals.
On September 11, 2008, the day that the state supreme court stay was to end, a new death warrant was signed by the same judge. According to this second warrant, Frank was scheduled for execution by lethal injection
on December 8, 2008. In a new round of appeals, defense attorneys argued they had had too little time to review the voluminous record before the deadline for filing appeals. The Louisiana State Supreme Court ruled on the case again. Their decision, made public November 25, 2008, effectively canceled the death warrant signed by Judge Marullo in September.
In September 2009, Frank moved to have Judge Marullo removed from her ongoing post-conviction appeals on grounds of bias, given that he had already signed two death warrants for her. Louisiana state Judge Laurie White heard the motion in September 2009, and on January 3, 2010, ruled that Marullo should not be taken off the case. Her attorney stated she would appeal the ruling to the state supreme court, which had already overruled both of Marullo's death warrants. However, yet another lower court state judge, Lynda Van Davis, ruled in October 2010 that Marullo had to be recused
from the Frank and LaCaze cases because it was unclear if he had been open with the defense teams about his own surprising connection to the gun used in the restaurant murders.Filosa, Gwen. Kim Anh trial judge's testimony sought during appeal seeking post-conviction relief, Times-Picayune, September 11, 2009, accessed September 9, 2011.
If Frank were to be executed, she would be the first woman to be put to death in the state since 1942.
Frank's case was featured in an episode of Deadly Women
titled Born Bad. It was initially aired by the Investigation Discovery cable channel October 29, 2009. The crime was re-enacted, and several individuals connected with prosecuting the case were interviewed, with commentary by Candice DeLong
and forensic pathologist Janis Amatuzio.
Initially, the Vu family's restaurant in New Orleans East remained open at the site of the tragedy. Hurricane Katrina
damaged the restaurant in 2005, and post-storm looters stole jewelry which Ha and Cuong had been wearing when they were killed. After that, Cuoc Vu and his mother Nguyet sold the old location and re-opened in Harahan, Louisiana
, moving their residence to Metairie
, where they said they felt more safe.
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
officer who was convicted of one of the most notorious crimes in recent New Orleans history: the robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
of a restaurant where she worked as a security guard
Security guard
A security guard is a person who is paid to protect property, assets, or people. Security guards are usually privately and formally employed personnel...
, and the murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s of three people, including her partner on the police force, who was also a security guard at the restaurant. Frank is one of two women on Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
's death row at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women is a prison for women located in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. It is the only female correctional facility of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Elayn Hunt Correctional Center is immediately west of LCIW...
in St. Gabriel, Louisiana
St. Gabriel, Louisiana
St. Gabriel is a city in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,677 at the 2010 census. The city of St. Gabriel includes the areas of Sunshine and Carville. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area....
.
Early life
Frank had an unstable childhoodChildhood
Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood , early childhood , middle childhood , and adolescence .- Age ranges of childhood :The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a...
, but she had wanted to become a police officer since she was a small girl. Frank was from a broken family: her brother was a fugitive, her father would appear in her life occasionally, and Frank became distressed about these issues, needing psychiatric help. Frank has claimed that her father abused her sexually, mentally, and physically when she was a child.
According to author Chuck Hustmyre
Chuck Hustmyre
Chuck Hustmyre is an American author, journalist, and screenwriter. He is a retired federal agent...
, a former federal agent and author of a book about Frank, Killer with a Badge, when Frank applied to become a police officer in Louisiana, she lied about her psychological problems.
Police career
Frank applied with the New Orleans Police DepartmentNew Orleans Police Department
The New Orleans Police Department has primary responsibility for law enforcement in New Orleans, Louisiana. The department's jurisdiction covers all of Orleans Parish, while the city is divided into eight police districts....
(NOPD) in 1993. Several red flags turned up during the hiring process. She'd been caught lying on several sections of her application, and had flunked two standard psychiatric evaluations. Psychologist Phillip Scurria examined her, and advised in no uncertain terms that she not be hired, saying she was "shallow and superficial". When it looked like her application was stalling despite protesting Scurria's evaluation, she left a suicide note and disappeared for over a day.
Despite this, the NOPD was chronically short-handed, and desperate to get more people on the force. Even with this shortage, then as now, the department does not hire anyone who doesn't live in New Orleans. Accordingly, she was hired on February 7, 1993. She graduated from the Police Academy on February 28, 1993.
On November 25, 1994, Frank handled a shooting incident in which Rogers Lacaze, a known drug dealer, was one of the victims. The DOC Department of Public Safety and Corrections investigator believes this was the first contact between the two, although in her statement, she claims that they met some eight months before the murder. The association between them became close and constant. Other police officers witnessed Lacaze driving her car and even observed him moving her police unit at the scene of an accident she was investigating. On one occasion, Lacaze accompanied her on a complaint call and she introduced him as a “trainee.” There were other times when Lacaze was introduced as her nephew. Frank refused to discuss her relationship with Lacaze during the DOC investigation, except to say that she was trying to help him. When asked why she would continue the relationship knowing that Lacaze had been involved in dealing drugs and in a shooting, she claimed that she would not disassociate herself from him just because of his past. The investigator also questioned Frank about trying to buy 9 mm ammunition for Lacaze at Wal-Mart on the day before the Kim Anh murders. She stated that she was a police officer and that there was nothing wrong with her buying ammunition. According to her statement, she claimed that she and Lacaze were not dating and had never been intimate. Frank refused to discuss anything regarding Officer Williams, the Vus or the murders. Every time the investigator asked her a question, she told him to “look it up in the record,” and asserted her innocence. However, during her interview with the DOC investigator, Frank did claim to have had a male suitor, but refused to go into specifics because he works for the police department.
John Stevens and Anthony Wallace testified in court that they met Rogers Lacaze at a party on February 4, 1995. As the two were leaving the party, a verbal altercation between Stevens and Lacaze ensued. Wallace suggested that they leave, and the two men got in a car and drove several blocks. At that time, a police vehicle pulled the car over. Frank, in police uniform, exited the squad car and told both Wallace and Stevens to get out and go to the back of the car. At that point Wallace saw Lacaze and noticed that he was holding a weapon. According to Stevens, Wallace then rushed Lacaze and the two men began fighting. At that point, both Stevens and Frank also jumped in the fray and the gun went off. Stevens began running and then another man appeared and grabbed both Lacaze and Wallace. Frank then told the bystander that, “Lacaze was the good guy,” and that Wallace was the one causing the problems. Wallace was restrained until a back-up unit arrived on the scene. He was subsequently arrested and charged with attempted murder and armed robbery.
Irvin Bryant, a civil sheriff in 1995, testified that on the evening of February 4, he observed a stopped police vehicle with the lights flashing. He thought that the officer was making a traffic stop, but as he got closer he saw the officer and two black males fighting on the side of the road. At that time Wallace broke away, ran and picked up a Tech 9 semi-automatic weapon out of the grass. Bryant ordered Wallace to drop the gun, which he did immediately. He then restrained Wallace, and Lacaze lunged towards him. He immediately grabbed Lacaze, but Frank informed him that Lacaze was with her and ordered him released. Furthermore, Mr. Bryant was never questioned by police and he never gave a formal statement.
The murders
On March 4, 1995, Frank and LaCaze visited Kim Anh, a VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
in New Orleans East. After midnight, as the employees cleaned the closed restaurant, Chau Vu, sister of two of the victims, went into the kitchen to count money. She entered the dining room of the restaurant to pay Officer Ronald A. Williams II
Ronald A. Williams II
Ronald Austin Williams II was a New Orleans Police Officer who was mortally wounded along with two employees of a family-run Vietnamese restaurant during an armed robbery attempt on March 4, 1995...
for the night, when she noticed Frank approaching the restaurant.
Frank and LaCaze had been at the restaurant twice earlier in the night to get leftover food to eat. When Chau had let her out on the last visit, she could not find the front door key. With Frank returning again for a third time, Chau sensed something was very wrong, so she ran to the kitchen to hide the money in the microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
.
Frank entered the front door using the key that she had taken from the restaurant earlier, and walked quickly past Officer Williams, pushing Chau, another of Chau's brothers, Quoc, and a restaurant employee into the doorway of the restaurant's kitchen. Williams started to follow asking them what was the problem when shots rang out.
As Frank turned back to the dining room of the restaurant, Chau grabbed Quoc to hide somewhere. LaCaze had been behind Officer Williams and shot him in the back of the neck, severing his spinal cord, instantly paralyzing him. The officer was shot again in the head and in the middle of his back, as he lay on the floor.
Chau, Quoc, and the employee hid in the rear of a large walk-in cooler in the kitchen, turning out its light as they entered. They did not know the whereabouts of Chau's and Quoc's other sister and brother, Ha and Cuong, who had been sweeping the dining room floors when Frank entered the restaurant. From inside the cooler, Chau and Quoc could partially see the kitchen and the front of the restaurant. Chau initially could see Frank looking for something in the kitchen. As Frank moved out of Chau's line of vision, additional gunshots were fired. Quoc next observed Frank searching where the Vus usually kept their money. Quoc saw Frank walk to the part of the kitchen where the bodies of his brother and sister were later found.
Frank and LaCaze were shouting and demanding the money. Ha and Cuong did not know where Chau had hidden the money. Twenty-one-year-old Ha was shot three times as she knelt pleading for her life and seventeen-year-old Cuong was shot six times and pistol whipped. After Frank and LaCaze left the premises, Quoc emerged from the cooler and ran out the back door of the restaurant to a nearby friend's home to call 911 to report the murders. Chau tried frantically to call 911 on her cell phone, but, being inside the cooler, she could not receive a signal.
Frank dropped off LaCaze at a nearby apartment complex, both knowing that there were witnesses left behind. Frank heard the 911 call on her portable police radio saying that an officer was down at the Kim Anh restaurant. She returned to the scene, parked in the rear, and entered through the back door of the restaurant. She made her way through the kitchen to the dining room where Chau waited for help at the front door. As Chau bolted through the restaurant's front door to the safety of arriving officers, Frank immediately identified herself as a police officer. Chau told Frank that she knew what she had done and cried to the officers that Frank had committed the crimes.
Chau and Frank were questioned in detail while seated at different tables in the restaurant. Frank was taken to police headquarters for additional questioning, where she later confessed to the crimes along with LaCaze. Frank and LaCaze were arrested and charged with first degree murder.
Trial and conviction
Frank and LaCaze were indicted by an Orleans Parish Grand JuryGrand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
on April 28, 1995. Their trials were severed, and LaCaze was tried first on July 17–21, 1995, found guilty as charged, and sentenced to death. Frank's trial began on September 5, 1995. The evidence against her was so overwhelming that Frank's attorneys did not mount a defense (despite subpoenaing 40 witnesses). On September 12, 1995, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts and recommended the death penalty. She was formally sentenced to death on October 20, 1995 and sent to Death Row at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women is a prison for women located in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. It is the only female correctional facility of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Elayn Hunt Correctional Center is immediately west of LCIW...
, in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, very near Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
.Davis, Robert Leon. My visit with Antoinette Frank on death row: convicted cop killer, undated circa 2008-2009.
Aftermath and current developments
In 1993, a year and a half before the murders at the Kim Anh, Frank's father had stayed at her home for a time—and then she reported him missing. In November 1995, a month after she received her first death sentence, a dog led police to find a humanHuman
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
skull
Human skull
The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...
with a bullet
Bullet
A bullet is a projectile propelled by a firearm, sling, or air gun. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the intended target by impact and penetration...
hole buried under Frank's house. News reports dating back to 2002 state that a psychiatrist testified that Frank's father had repeatedly impregnated her via rape and had compelled her to have multiple abortions. In a 2005 retrospective, Chuck Hustmyre, who wrote a true crime
True crime
True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...
book about the case, said, "As for those human bones unearthed beneath Frank’s house, so far, authorities have made no serious effort to identify them. The 10-year-old case, they say, remains under investigation."Hustmyre, Chuck. Blue on Blue: Murder, Madness and Betrayal in the NOPD, New Orleans Magazine, February 2005, accessed September 9, 2011. According to Hustmyre, shortly before 2005 and several years after her conviction, Frank began to make statements blaming her father for "years of emotional, physical and sexual abuse at his hands," which accounted for her murder of the police officer and the restaurant workers.
On October 18, 2006, Frank's attorneys
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
argued before the Louisiana Supreme Court
Louisiana Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Louisiana is the highest court and court of last resort in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The modern Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, meets in the French Quarter of New Orleans....
that her death sentence should be overturned because she was denied state-funded experts to help prepare for the sentencing phase of the trial. On May 22, 2007, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the death penalty should be upheld.
On April 22, 2008, State Judge Frank Marullo signed the death warrant for Antoinette Frank. According to the warrant, Frank was scheduled for execution by lethal injection
Lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...
on July 15, 2008. In May, however, the Louisiana Supreme Court issued a 90-day stay of execution effective June 10 pending ongoing appeals.
On September 11, 2008, the day that the state supreme court stay was to end, a new death warrant was signed by the same judge. According to this second warrant, Frank was scheduled for execution by lethal injection
Lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...
on December 8, 2008. In a new round of appeals, defense attorneys argued they had had too little time to review the voluminous record before the deadline for filing appeals. The Louisiana State Supreme Court ruled on the case again. Their decision, made public November 25, 2008, effectively canceled the death warrant signed by Judge Marullo in September.
In September 2009, Frank moved to have Judge Marullo removed from her ongoing post-conviction appeals on grounds of bias, given that he had already signed two death warrants for her. Louisiana state Judge Laurie White heard the motion in September 2009, and on January 3, 2010, ruled that Marullo should not be taken off the case. Her attorney stated she would appeal the ruling to the state supreme court, which had already overruled both of Marullo's death warrants. However, yet another lower court state judge, Lynda Van Davis, ruled in October 2010 that Marullo had to be recused
Recusal
Judicial disqualification, also referred to as recusal, refers to the act of abstaining from participation in an official action such as a legal proceeding due to a conflict of interest of the presiding court official or administrative officer. Applicable statutes or canons of ethics may provide...
from the Frank and LaCaze cases because it was unclear if he had been open with the defense teams about his own surprising connection to the gun used in the restaurant murders.Filosa, Gwen. Kim Anh trial judge's testimony sought during appeal seeking post-conviction relief, Times-Picayune, September 11, 2009, accessed September 9, 2011.
If Frank were to be executed, she would be the first woman to be put to death in the state since 1942.
Frank's case was featured in an episode of Deadly Women
Deadly Women
Deadly Women is a television series first aired in 2005 on the Discovery Channel, focusing on female killers. It was originally a mini-series consisting of three episodes: "Obsession," "Greed" and "Revenge". After a 2 year hiatus, the show resumed production in 2008 and began airing on the...
titled Born Bad. It was initially aired by the Investigation Discovery cable channel October 29, 2009. The crime was re-enacted, and several individuals connected with prosecuting the case were interviewed, with commentary by Candice DeLong
Candice DeLong
Candice DeLong is a former FBI criminal profiler. DeLong was the head profiler in San Francisco, California and worked on the Unabomber case. Currently, she hosts the Investigation Discovery program Deadly Women, in which she uses her profiling skills to investigate women who kill. She also hosts...
and forensic pathologist Janis Amatuzio.
Initially, the Vu family's restaurant in New Orleans East remained open at the site of the tragedy. Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
damaged the restaurant in 2005, and post-storm looters stole jewelry which Ha and Cuong had been wearing when they were killed. After that, Cuoc Vu and his mother Nguyet sold the old location and re-opened in Harahan, Louisiana
Harahan, Louisiana
Harahan is a city in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 9,885 at the 2000 census.Harahan was named in honor of James Theodore Harahan, president of the Illinois Central Railroad from 1906-1911...
, moving their residence to Metairie
Metairie, Louisiana
Metairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...
, where they said they felt more safe.
External links
- Murder Behind the Badge: True Stories of Cops Who Kill, a book by former police officer Stacy DittrichStacy DittrichStacy Dittrich is an American mystery novelist, true crime author, former police detective from Ohio, law enforcement media analyst, and speaker.-Career:...
, includes the Antoinette Frank case (2009 Prometheus BooksPrometheus BooksPrometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co-founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is currently the chairman of all three organizations. Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, including many...
).