Frances Choy was convicted of killing her parents in a 2003 house fire, but her conviction was voided earlier this year after racist emails sent by prosecutors came to light. On Tuesday, Plymouth County's District Attorney gave up on its effort to try her again.
In April, Choy was released to home confinement after spending 17 years in prison. Plymouth Superior Court judge Linda Giles stayed Choy's life in prison sentence and, in September, granted the motion to vacate Choy's conviction.
"The trial prosecutors exchanged numerous images of Asian people, some accompanied by pejorative comments and some unexplained. They exchanged jokes about Asian stereotypes and mocking caricatures of Asians using imperfect English," Judge Giles wrote in her decision.
The original conviction came after three trials and was suspect from the outset, with police caught lying about their relentless interrogation of a 17-year-old child.
During lengthy questioning by police in 2003, Frances said she had no knowledge of how the fire started. Police said at some point she admitted to having a role in the fire, but then retracted her statement. There were no recordings or notes from the police questioning. At the time police said they did not have the equipment necessary to record interrogations. But Frances Choy's defense presented an affidavit from a retired Brockton police officer indicating that was false and police were able to record questioning.
Half her life in jail.
