Federal Judge Gives Child Killer 45-Day Stay of Death Sentence : Courts: The action opens up Theodore Frank’s last chance for appeals in the 1978 torture of a Camarillo girl. His execution had been scheduled for Dec. 6.

Child killer Theodore Frank has won a 45-day federal court stay of his death sentence for the 1978 torture-murder of a 2 1/2-year-old Camarillo girl, opening up his last chance for appeals, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler granted Frank’s request for a stay of execution on Nov. 18, effectively postponing his Dec. 6 execution until late January.

Stotler is expected to appoint a lawyer for Frank and to hear his arguments that he has been unjustly condemned to die for molesting, torturing and murdering Amy Sue Seitz 13 years ago.

From his cell on San Quentin’s Death Row, Frank petitioned the federal court for a writ of habeas corpus, a ruling that his verdict or sentence violates his constitutional rights.

But Stotler’s stay does not guarantee that she will hear Frank’s appeal within 45 days, said state Deputy Atty. Gen. Jeff Koch.

Koch said Stotler may grant further stays if Frank’s new lawyer persuades the judge that he needs more time to research legal issues.

“Our position is time is of the essence, and we need to get going on this,” Koch said. “The crime occurred in 1978, and it’s about time it got resolved.”

But a new defense lawyer might persuade Stotler to return the case to state courts to again review the content of Frank’s state habeas corpus appeals, said state Deputy Public Defender Kent Barkhurst, Frank’s most recent attorney.

The state Supreme Court rejected that appeal on procedural grounds in the spring of 1990, leaving the door open for further proceedings in state court, Barkhurst said.

“He has a shot in federal court now,” Barkhurst said Tuesday. “It’s not uncommon for federal courts to send a case back to state court to exhaust any unexhausted claims.”

Barkhurst said he and Frank agreed that Frank would need a new attorney to usher him through the federal appeals process. Frank then discharged Barkhurst and applied for a federal court-appointed attorney.

“We agreed that this is the appropriate procedure at this point,” Barkhurst said. “We’re interested in having Mr. Frank getting a full and fair hearing in federal court and to be able to litigate all the various issues that have been raised and should be raised.”

Stotler’s order for a stay of execution is the latest chapter in a long appeals process for Frank.

He was convicted in 1980 of kidnaping Amy Sue from her baby-sitter’s front yard March 14, 1978, then forcing beer down her throat, torturing her with tools and raping her. Frank then strangled the girl and dumped her body in Topanga Canyon.

Just six weeks earlier, Frank was released from Atascadero State Psychiatric Hospital in San Luis Obispo County.

Doctors had declared him cured four years after he was hospitalized for sexually assaulting a Bakersfield girl.

After his arrest for Amy Sue’s death, Frank admitted molesting 100 to 150 children in four states between 1958 and 1974, and after leaving the hospital in 1978.

In 1985, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird led the court in overturning Frank’s death sentence.

But a rehearing of the penalty phase of the case resulted in a second death sentence for Frank.

On June 10 this year, the U.S. Supreme Court refused Frank’s petition to hear his appeal.

His state appeals exhausted at that point, Frank was condemned to die under a Sept. 27 order issued by Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan. The original trial and the second penalty phase were held in Orange County after a motion for a change of venue from Ventura County.