Keith Duggan talks to North Carolina prosecutor Garry Frank, the man who agreed the plea deal with Molly and Thomas Martens that allows them to be released from prison on Thursday
Garry Frank: His office prosecuted Molly Martens and her father Thomas Martens over the killing of Jason Corbett. Photograph: North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys“This was not something I or anyone on the staff was happy about,” says Garry Frank, the district attorney whose Davidson County office prosecuted the case trial againstMr Frank is 71 and has had a long, distinguished career, serving in the Lexington office since 1978.
The realm of a retrial presented a different proposition. Experience has told him that it is invariably more difficult to achieve a successful prosecution in a second trial. “I don’t want to get into the merits and demerits of it, but the logistics changed – it made it much tougher for us to try the case. Just a different process reaching a jury in a different county.”
“It was difficult to come to the conclusion that it was the best way to proceed. What I tell families is that my job is often to prevent an injustice as much as to seek justice.” “We tried from day one – the very first time that I had knowledge of the case, when the sheriff told me about it – we went forward vigorously and tried to seek justice. So, I have no regrets in that way. I don’t know of a case that has taken as many man hours as this one.”
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