Franklin v. Bradshaw, No. 09-3389 (6th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseIn 1997, 19-year-old Franklin beat his grandmother, grandfather, and uncle, set the house on fire and left them to die of blunt-force injuries or smoke inhalation. Franklin fled the scene in his grandfather’s car, taking his grandfather’s gun and his grandmother’s jewelry. The trial court found him competent; the jury found Franklin guilty on: seven aggravated arsons, two aggravated robberies, and six aggravated murders. The trial court sentenced Franklin to death and 91 years of imprisonment. On direct appeal, the Ohio Supreme Court merged the escaping-detection aggravator into the aggravated-robbery and aggravated-arson aggravators then independently reweighed aggravation and mitigation before determining that death was the appropriate sentence. The district court denied a petition for habeas corpus. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting claims: challenging the pretrial competency hearing and determination of competency; alleging ineffective assistance; challenging denial of a continuance after a defense arson expert died before testifying; challenging admission of “gruesome” photographs; that execution would constitute cruel and unusual punishment and would violate his Equal Protection and Due Process rights because he committed the crimes when he was mentally ill; and that the definition of “reasonable doubt” given in the guilt-phase jury instructions was constitutionally inadequate.
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