Antoinette Frank, a former New Orleans police officer convicted of killing three people in 1995, appeared in court Wednesday as her lawyers sought to have her murder convictions and death sentence reviewed.
Frank shot and killed her partner and two others during a botched robbery at a restaurant in New Orleans East. She was tried, convicted, and sentenced by a jury to die.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Smith, a longtime Tulane and Broad lawyer who has followed the case from the start, said the legal process has been stalled for years.
“In 2009, Frank filed for post-conviction relief, asking a court to review her case and sentence,” Smith said. “And for almost 14 years, until 2023, no action was ever taken. And it just sat there, and it may have sat there in perpetuity if not for changes in state law.”
The Louisiana attorney general is handling the matter and wants the motion for post-conviction relief dismissed. The office argues that after 31 years, witnesses have died, evidence has been destroyed or lost, and it can no longer make a counterargument.
The attorney general is asking the judge to set an execution date.
Smith expressed uncertainty about whether an execution will ever occur.
“They need closure,” Smith said. “The best way to split the baby, maybe—no death, no years, but life.”
Melaina Talia, CEO of the Police and Justice Foundation and a former prosecutor in New Orleans who was working as an assistant district attorney when the Frank case went to trial, said the legal process has taken too long.
“This needs to be put to rest,” Talia said. “No more rewriting the story. A jury convicted her 31 years ago and agreed to the death penalty 31 years ago. It’s time for this to be put to rest.”
Frank’s lawyers declined to comment as they left the courtroom.
