Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COURTS : Frank Again Gets Death in Girl’s Murder

Convicted killer Theodore Frank, whose first sentence for the kidnaping and murder of 2-year-old Amy Sue Seitz was overturned by the state Supreme Court, received a death sentence for the second time from an Orange County judge.

Frank, 51, spent almost six years on San Quentin’s Death Row for the March, 1978, murder of Amy Sue before the Supreme Court overturned his death sentence in 1985. That Supreme Court decision was raised repeatedly in last year’s successful campaign to oust Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and two associate justices.

Frank’s case was returned to Orange County, where his first trial had been held after a change of venue from Ventura County, where Amy Sue lived. The second jury took only four hours to return another death verdict.

Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan, who could have sentenced Frank to life in prison without parole, said last Wednesday that although Frank had much in his favor--religious involvement at San Quentin, a good prison record, and a reputation for helping other inmates--”the mitigating circumstances pale in comparison to the circumstances of the murder.”

In court last Wednesday, Frank sat quietly with his head down as he listened to Ryan list the injuries that Frank inflicted on Amy Sue before her death, including three blows to the head, rape and pinching the girl’s body with a pair of locking pliers.