"Life or Death": KCAL 9's Report as the Grim Sleeper Penalty Phase Began, May 12, 2016

Name: "Life or Death": KCAL 9's Report as the Grim Sleeper Penalty Phase Began, May 12, 2016
Uploaded: 2016-05-12T00:00:00Z
Duration: 3 min 7 s
Description: A KCAL 9 live report from the first day of the Grim Sleeper penalty phase, with the prosecutor's opening on a 1974 rape in Germany and five uncharged murders, and a victim's daughter in court.

A KCAL 9 live report from the first day of the Grim Sleeper penalty phase, with the prosecutor's opening on a 1974 rape in Germany and five uncharged murders, and a victim's daughter in court.

Subject: Lonnie Franklin
Recorded: about May 12, 2016
Runtime: 3:07

Content warning: Describes a 1974 kidnapping and gang rape and refers to the murders of women; no graphic detail.

The Interview

This is not an interview with Lonnie Franklin Jr., who is not heard in it. It is a three-minute live report broadcast on KCAL 9 in Los Angeles on May 12, 2016, the morning the penalty phase of Franklin's trial began. Reporter Dave Lopez speaks from the courthouse, and the report includes short excerpts of Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman's opening statement to the jury and a soundbite from Rochelle Johnson, whose mother was one of the victims.

Historical Context

Between 1985 and 2007 nine women and a 15-year-old girl were murdered in South Los Angeles. The unknown killer was called the "Grim Sleeper" because of an apparent long gap between the killings of the 1980s and those of the 2000s. Franklin was arrested on July 7, 2010, after a familial DNA search. His trial opened on February 16, 2016, and on May 5, 2016, the jury convicted him of ten counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. The same jury then had to decide between life in prison and the death penalty.

Circumstances

Lopez reports that Judge Kathleen Kennedy allowed cameras only for the opening statements, and that by the time of his live shot the third of many victims' relatives had finished testifying. In the penalty phase the prosecution set out crimes beyond those of which Franklin had been convicted: a 1974 kidnapping and gang rape in West Germany, when Franklin was a U.S. Army soldier, and further murders for which he had not been charged.

What the Recording Covers

Lopez explains that the jury must choose life in prison or death, with "no in-between", and that everything Franklin had done would now be "front and center". In the courtroom excerpts, Silverman tells the jury they will hear about the murders of five other women and a kidnapping and gang rape, and describes how the 17-year-old victim in Germany was forced into a vehicle, driven to a field, threatened with a knife, raped and photographed. Lopez reports that Franklin and two other soldiers were convicted of that crime and that the woman would come to Los Angeles to testify. Rochelle Johnson, who was four when her mother, Henrietta Wright, was killed, describes being told that her mother had been murdered by a man who was still free. Lopez closes by explaining that the five uncharged murders, two of whose victims' bodies were never found, would be presented almost like a trial, and that the penalty phase was expected to last about a month.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It is contemporaneous coverage of the first day of the penalty phase, with camera footage of the opening statements, the only part of that phase cameras were allowed to record according to the report. It captures the prosecution's first public outline in court of Franklin's 1974 conviction in Germany and of the uncharged murders.

Archival Importance

The report comes from the station's own channel. It sits between Franklin's 2010 LAPD interrogation and the AP footage of his formal death sentence on August 10, 2016, and documents the stage of the trial at which the jury weighed his life.

Important Caveats

Franklin is not heard. The survivor of the 1974 attack is not named in the report and must not be named on the page. Some details in the report differ from other sources: Lopez says Henrietta Wright was murdered in 1985, while case sources, and the prosecution slide shown in the report at about 2:01, date her death to August 12, 1986; he says Franklin served time in the Army brig, while Wikipedia says a West German court sentenced him to three years and four months; and he speaks of five uncharged murders, while Wikipedia names four. The line "that's what you deserve is the death penalty" is probably from Silverman's opening, but the attribution is not certain. Rochelle Johnson's name is spelled as in the station's own broadcast caption track and has not been checked against another source; whether her soundbite comes from testimony or an interview is not clear.

Anchor: ...who's convicted of killing 10 women, and now the same jury that found the Grim Sleeper guilty will consider whether or not to recommend the death penalty. KCAL 9's Dave Lopez, he is live outside the courtroom where the penalty phase just started this morning. Dave?

Dave Lopez: Sandra, we're on the 12th floor, to be exact, and right you are. The jury must make a decision: life in prison or the death penalty. There's no in-between on here. And everything that Lonnie Franklin has done in his life is going to be front and center stage. Now, the judge has allowed only the cameras for the opening statements, which have happened. Right now the third of many victim family members have finished testifying. No tears from the stands yet, just saying what life has been like without their loved ones ever since Lonnie Franklin came into the picture. Again, opening statements almost matter-of-factly, but again, everything that Lonnie Franklin has ever done in his life criminally will now come to the forefront.

Beth Silverman: Then you're going to hear about several other crimes, including the murder of five other women, as well as a kidnap and gang rape.

Dave Lopez: Prosecutor Beth Silverman told the same jury that convicted Lonnie Franklin Jr. of 10 murders and one attempted murder that there is much more to his criminal background: Germany, 1974, when Franklin was in the U.S. Army.

Beth Silverman: ...that they dragged her and forced her into their vehicle, drove her out to a vacant field, where they stopped the car, threatened her with a knife, gang raped her and took photographs of her.

Dave Lopez: Franklin and two other soldiers were convicted of that gang rape, served time in the Army brig, and Ms. Silverman told the jury that victim, 17 years old at the time, will be here in Los Angeles to testify at this penalty phase.

Beth Silverman: Death. That's what the case is pretty much leading to. All these victims, that's what you deserve, is the death penalty.

Dave Lopez: Rochelle Johnson was four years old when her mother, Henrietta Wright, was murdered by Franklin in 1985, the second victim of the 10 which he was found guilty of.

Rochelle Johnson: She basically told me that my mom was, you know, killed by a guy that they didn't know who was the one who did it, and he was still out free.

Dave Lopez: She said she was eight years old when an aunt told her about her mother, that she was murdered by some guy who they hadn't caught. She was in the courtroom today, and many family members of the victims will testify at this penalty phase to tell the jury what life has been like for more than 30 years, for some of them, to live with the nightmare that after all these years the man who did this to their family had never been brought to justice, until now. Of the five murders that the prosecutor alluded to, those were murders in this string that began in 1984, but there wasn't enough evidence, she told the jury, to bring the charges of murder against Lonnie Franklin on this. But they will have a lot, it will be just like a trial, involving those five women. Two of those women, their bodies have never been found. The case will go on now for about a month, and then the jury must decide: life or death, those are the two choices. Back to you in the studio, [unclear: "Lon" / "one all"]. ---