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His 1980 conviction based on tainted testimony was overturned
after the lone eyewitness against him recanted. His conviction
dates to a high-crime era when police and prosecutors were so
intent to sew up unsolved homicides that they coerced vulnerable
witnesses to fabricate stories and frame innocent Black men.
Many such cases have been exposed by District Attorney Larry
Krasner, a former defense attorney, since he was elected in
Philadelphia in November 2017. Krasner's office has exonerated
43 wrongfully convicted prisoners - 38 of them Black, three
Latino and two white. But Krasner's office has so far told the
court it will seek a new trial for Franklin.
A spokesperson for the District Attorney's Office declined to
comment on Franklin's case or any possible rights violations of
the past, referring Reuters to the Franklin case court filings
in which it stands by the original testimony since recanted.
Philadelphia police did not respond to multiple requests for
comment.
Franklin, 77, has been confined to his North Philadelphia home
since his release from prison on March 5. Flashing a ready
smile, he said in an interview before Friday's hearing that he
was able to maintain calm because of his Muslim faith and
support from family.
"They won't let me go astray," Franklin said. "I'm in a good
place. Don't think I don't feel it, though. But I'm not going to
get out there and rant and rave. That's just not me."
He also declined to criticize Krasner, saying, "I'm not going to
bash the man because he's helping so many other people."
Franklin's defense attorney, Joe Marrone, said he hopes
prosecutors will drop the case on Friday and clear Franklin for
good.
Philadelphia's criminal justice system became known for "testilying,"
an insider's term made prominent by the Philadelphia Inquirer's
investigative reporting, in which police and prosecutors
manipulated witnesses into framing the innocent, then leveraged
their commissions of perjury or other crimes to force them to
stand by their stories.
Franklin's case has been linked to a "Sex for Lies" scandal in
which Philadelphia detectives granted criminal suspects access
to a police interview room where they could be visited by wives,
girlfriends or prostitutes in exchange for false accusations.
Common Pleas Court Judge Tracy Brandeis-Roman on Feb. 28
overturned Franklin's conviction after hearing the statements of
two "Sex for Lies" witnesses who years later recanted their
trial court testimony that framed Franklin and his co-defendant,
Major Tillery.
BAD OLD DAYS
Matthew Barry Johnson, a professor at New York's John Jay
College of Criminal Justice, said the practice of granting
leniency to criminal suspects in exchange for testifying against
others has long been a staple of the U.S. justice system - and
quite often abused.
The advent of progressive prosecutors like Krasner, DNA evidence
and more scientific crime-fighting has reduced abuses and
overturned convictions across the country, Johnson said.
"But it's still an uphill battle with the prevalent fears about
crime that are always amplified, oftentimes by politicians,"
Johnson said.
Franklin and his co-defendant Tillery were convicted of the 1976
poolroom shooting that killed Joseph Hollis and wounded John
Pickens. Franklin said he had frequented the poolroom before but
was not there at the time of the shooting.
Three and a half years passed without an arrest until police
picked up Franklin based on the statement of Emmanuel Claitt,
who would later tell the trial court that he saw Tillery kill
Hollis and Franklin wound Pickens.
But Claitt, who was in prison with several open cases against
him when he first implicated Franklin and Tillery, told an
investigator for Tillery in a 2016 videotaped statement that he
lied at trial and was never at the poolroom. Police allowed him
to use an interview room and hotels for sex with his girlfriends
in exchange for the fabricated story, he said.
"If right is right, right will prevail because the DA knows that
they lied and they got me to lie," Claitt said on the video.
"And I want to free my conscience. I can't live with myself
knowing I did that."
Claitt died in 2020.
Judge Brandeis-Roman cited "Sex for Lies" and Claitt's statement
in her decision to overturn Franklin's conviction.
In the interview with Reuters, Franklin called on officials to
release all their files on the wrongfully convicted.
Defense attorney Marrone has helped or is working to exonerate
other "Sex for Lies" victims, including Tillery.
"There are so many guys sitting in state prison in Pennsylvania
on homicide charges of the 80s and 90s," Marrone said, calling
the number of victims unknown. "We get calls every day. So there
could be 50. We don't know."
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; editing by
Donna Bryson)
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