death penalty news January 2, 2005
OHIO: Judge's call: Life or death - Case of child killer draws scrutiny Just months after Boone County Judge Tony Frohlich took the bench in 2004, he presided over the high-profile murder trial of child killer Marco Allen Chapman. IN BRIEF Name: Tony Frohlich Age: 50 Family: Raised in Boone County, the oldest of nine siblings. Married to Candace Frohlich. They have two sons, Ken, 28, and Matt, 23. Education: 1976 magna cum laude graduate of Northern Kentucky University, in political science and history. Earned law degree from Salmon P. Chase College of Law, graduating at the top of his class in 1980. Career: Appointed circuit court judge for Boone and Gallatin counties in April. Ran unopposed for position in November. Term expires in 2006. In just less than eight months, Tony Frohlich had gone from auctioning foreclosed homes on the courthouse steps to granting someone's death wish. Frohlich was left to decide whether admitted child killer Marco Allen Chapman could change his plea to guilty in order to be executed. Chapman's unusual request - and horrible crime - attracted national press. Chapman killed Cody Sharon, 6, and her sister Chelbi, 7. He injured their sister and mother, who survived by playing dead in an August 2002 attack in the river town of Warsaw. As a wall of television cameras focused in, Frohlich articulated his reasoning for sending Chapman to death row. "The death penalty is the proper punishment under the present law for these ... kinds of murder," he said. "However, there is an ongoing debate in the country - on religious, philosophical and political grounds - whether the law is a good law. But there is no doubt, under the current law, the death penalty has been held ... as constitutional and legal punishment for this type of crime." Frohlich said that he was sensitive to an argument that his decision was tantamount to government-supported assisted suicide, but that he had to follow the law. "A person must be able to exercise their free will," he said from the bench. "There is no legal authority from preventing a defendant from entering a guilty plea in a death penalty case." He's a familiar face in the Boone County Courthouse. Frohlich took over the bench in April, after serving as master commissioner and being responsible for auctioning foreclosed properties. Observers can tell that Frohlich has strong moral and religious convictions, said Commonwealth's Attorney Linda Tally Smith, who prosecuted Chapman. She said his actions were tempered by faith in God while not being overtly religious. "If you were stopped and asked to decide whether someone should live or die, it would be a decision that weighed on you," Smith said. Frohlich declined to discuss Chapman's case, which is before the Kentucky Supreme Court for a review required under state law. Chapman had said he was "under the influence" during the attack, but never spoke of a motive. He apologized to the family, with whom he was acquainted before the killings. While this was his highest-profile case on the bench, Frohlich has been involved in other capital cases. There have been three death penalty cases in Boone County since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment, and he has been involved in all of them. He helped work on the Eugene W. Gall Jr. case as the legal intern in the public defender's office in 1978. Gall was convicted of abducting 12-year-old Lisa Jansen in Ohio, then raping and fatally shooting her in Boone County. The other prior case involved Michael Kruse and Paul Kordenbrock. Frohlich was an assistant prosecutor when they were prosecuted for the robbery and shooting death of a Florence auto parts store clerk in 1980. When Frohlich took over from longtime Judge Jay Bamberger in April, he inherited the busiest caseload in the state. He had 2,241 cases filed in his district for 2004. The average for a circuit judge in Kentucky is 1,074 per year. At one point this winter, Frohlich had 15 murder cases. Smith said that, despite the caseload, he is thoughtful and does not rush. "He is very level." (source: Cincinnati Enquirer)
