Prosecutors racially discriminatory remarks reveal the murder of a Chinese American girl's parents 17 years later

  On September 29th, local time in the United States, the Supreme Court of Plymouth, Massachusetts, officially issued a acquittal of Chinese-American Francis Tsai.

Francis was arrested in 2003 for first-degree murder and arson and was convicted in 2011.

She was only 17 years old when she was arrested.

After 17 years in prison, she finally waited for the day to clear her offense.

  The court's acquittal made Francis the first woman of color in Massachusetts history to be acquitted after being convicted.

  The 180-degree turnaround of the case stemmed from the exposure of the prosecutors in charge of the case with serious racial discrimination and the emergence of new evidence.

17-year-old girl accused of arson and murder of her parents

  On April 17, 2003, Francis was still a 17-year-old high school graduate. Disaster fell from the sky, and Francis’s home burst into flames.

When the firefighters arrived at the scene, Francis' parents were already buried in the flames.

Father Jimmy Tsai and mother Annie Tsai are immigrants from Hong Kong and Vietnam.

  Firefighters rescued the 17-year-old Francis and her 16-year-old nephew Kenneth Tsai.

Kenneth is the son of Francis' half-brother. He came to the United States from Hong Kong 4 years ago to live with the Francis family.

Disasters ensued. On the same day Francis lost her parents and became homeless, she was arrested by the local police and subsequently charged with first-degree murder and arson because the police found traces of man-made arson at the scene, and she was also a suspect Kenneth was also arrested.

  According to local media reports, during the long police interrogation that followed, Francis stated that she did not know what was the cause of the fire, but the police claimed that Francis had admitted that she was involved in arson during the interrogation, but then overturned her statement. .

  After the case was submitted to the court for trial, due to the different opinions of the jury, no results were reached in the first two trials.

When the case was deadlocked, Francis' nephew Kenneth agreed to be a taint witness for the prosecution in exchange for immunity from the court.

  Kenneth once wrote two notes about how to set the house on fire. He testified to the court that it was Francis who asked him to study how to set a fire in the house and wrote these notes. Kenneth further testified that it was Francis used gasoline to light a fire, causing the entire house to fall into flames.

  In 2008, the jury released Kenneth.

In the second year after his release from prison, Kenneth was arrested by the police again on suspicion of drug trafficking. Soon after he was released from prison, he bought a ticket to Hong Kong.

  In 2011, Francis's third court trial, because the key witness Kenneth could not be found, the prosecutor stated Kenneth's testimony in the court. Francis was finally convicted of first-degree murder and arson by the jury. , Was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The case reversed 17 years later, and the prosecutor's racial discrimination remarks were exposed

  In the long years that followed, Francis and her team of lawyers have been working hard to prove their innocence. A few years later, the case finally had a new breakthrough.

  Francis’ lawyer John Bart found some emails with racially discriminatory remarks from the two prosecutors in charge of the case.

In these disclosed emails, the two prosecutors exchanged a large number of Asian pictures and some discriminatory comments.

In the email, they joked about Asian stereotypes and laughed at Asians’ imperfect English.

  "These emails were written in the context of the first-degree murder trial." Sharon Beckman, a member of the Francis lawyers, pointed out.

The team of lawyers believes that if the prosecutor discriminates against the ethnicity of the defendant Francis, there is no guarantee that the defendant will receive a trial based on the principle of fairness and justice. Therefore, the team of lawyers appealed to the court and requested a retrial of the case.

  At the same time, new evidence continues to emerge.

In the year of the incident, the key evidence submitted by the police showed that they found traces of gasoline on the sweatpants worn by Francis on the day of the incident. However, during a recheck of the evidence, it was found that there was no gasoline remaining on the sweatpants. Mark of.

Moreover, the police did not test the clothes of another suspect, Kenneth.

  In addition, in the court hearing that year, the police claimed that Francis had admitted to arson, and then overturned his claim.

The police pointed out that due to limited conditions, there were no notes, audio or video records during the interrogation.

However, a retired police officer of the police station proved that the police were fully capable of recording evidence during the interrogation of Francis.

Therefore, the police's statement is completely untenable, let alone prove that Francis once admitted that he set the fire.

  Plymouth Supreme Court Judge Linda Giles further pointed out that, at the last minute, the prosecution used the record of the tainted witness Kenneth's testimony to replace the most important testimony in court, which put Francis at a very disadvantageous position.

It's hard to recover after 17 years

  With the discovery of new evidence and the exposure of racially discriminatory remarks by the district attorney that year, 17 years later, the murder of Francis’s parents was finally reversed.

On September 29th, US local time, the Plymouth Supreme Court signed Francis's acquittal.

The judge wrote in the verdict: "If the court can get the evidence as soon as possible, the two prosecutors will definitely be required to disqualify the prosecution."

  "This may be the first murder in the United States that was overturned because of the prosecutor's racially discriminatory position." Attorney John Bart said.

  Sharon Beckman, a member of the lawyers’ team, said: “Francis was an innocent victim but was treated as a criminal suspect. She was wrongly convicted due to racism and other official misconduct. I hope her case will inspire reform. ."

  Arrested and jailed at the age of 17, and regained freedom after 17 years, Francis could no longer recover the 17 years she had lost.