Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Quawn Moses Franklin - Florida Death Row

  1. #1
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534

    Quawn Moses Franklin - Florida Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    While Franklin was serving a ten-year sentence for robbery, he was granted a conditional release on October 1, 2001. About two months later, on December 18, 2001, Franklin initiated a ten-day crime spree that began with the kidnapping and killing of pizza delivery man John Horan. On December 27 or 28, Franklin and the Pamela McCoy robbed and assaulted Alice Johnson in her home. Franklin stole her car and drove it from Leesburg to St. Petersburg to visit family. Upon returning to Leesburg, he stopped at the Elberta Crate and Box Factory and asked for directions from the security guard, Jerry Lawley. On December 29, Franklin returned to the factory and again encountered Lawley. Franklin forced Lawley out of his car onto his knees and shot him once in the back. Franklin searched Lawley’s pockets and car but did not find anything of value, so he fled to St. Petersburg. Lawley managed to get help from a company truck driver, Edward Ellis, who was on the company’s grounds. Lawley told Ellis that he had been shot by a tall black male wearing a knit cap and driving a newer model blue car. Ellis called 911 and gave this information to the responding officer.

    In St. Petersburg, on December 30, a police officer came upon a late model blue Toyota Camry where Franklin--who was wearing gloves--and McCoy were sleeping. Upon searching the car, the officer found a revolver and a black knit cap. Franklin admitted to shooting Lawley because he “wanted to.” While waiting for trial, Franklin contacted a newspaper reporter and made incriminating statements about his involvement in Lawley’s murder. These statements, along with ballistic evidence linking the revolver found under Franklin’s seat to the bullet that tore through Lawley’s body, were used to convict Franklin of first-degree murder and attempted robbery.

    Franklin was sentenced to death in Lake County on June 3, 2004.

    Co-defendant information:
    Pamela McCoy, 13 years old at the time of her crime, was sentenced to 35 years for attempted armed robbery and principal to second-degree murder. This crime occurred during Franklin’s ten-day crime spree in Lake County.

  2. #2
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534
    July 23, 2010

    Death Row inmate says he found the Lord----No longer wants to participate in appeal

    A Dayton Beach man on death row for the 2001 killing of a Leesburg security guard no longer wants to participate in the appeal of his conviction or sentence, saying he has found the Lord.

    But attorneys for Quawn Moses Franklin, 33, said Thursday they will continue the appeals process.

    They also contend the issue at hand is whether their client has truly found the Lord, or whether he is mentally incompetent.

    Franklin is represented by attorneys Maria Perinetti and Mark Gruber, who work for the Capital Collateral Relief Council in Tampa. The group represents indigent inmates.

    In a status conference hearing Wednesday in Lake County Circuit Court, Franklin refused to sign legal paperwork that would continue his participation in his appeals.

    Assistant State Attorney Bill Gross, who has prosecuted cases against Franklin for 9 years, said Franklin told the judge that Perinetti and Gruber are no longer his lawyers. The inmate said the Lord is now his attorney, Gross said.

    This latest twist in Franklin's case comes after a ruling in June by Circuit Judge Mark Hill that Franklin is mentally competent to deal with the appeals, Perinetti said.

    She and Gruber said they disagree with the judge's decision, and they there was plenty of expert testimony at the January hearing as to Franklin's mental competency.

    Franklin told Hill at the hearing that he didn't have the mental capacity to understand what was going on when he stood trial in the 2004 capital murder of Jerry Lawley, a security guard at Elberta Crate and Box Factory.

    Lawley was on his knees when he was shot in the back, investigators said.

    Franklin also received life sentences in the killing of a Leesburg pizza delivery man and the attempted murder of a community patriarch during a 2-week crime spree in 2001.

    Gross said Franklin had unsuccessfully tried to pass himself off as being mentally incompetent for the trial, and Gross thinks he was faking.

    The jury unanimously recommended that Franklin be put to death.

    According to investigators and trial testimony, Leesburg police found Lawley bound and shot once in the back at Elberta Crate and Box Factory on Tally Box Road early on the morning of Dec. 29, 2001.

    Lawley was flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center and died the next day.

    The body of the pizza delivery man, John Horan, had been found on the same road on Dec. 19, 2001. After ordering pizza from Papa John's and giving a false address, Franklin and 2 others were accused of ambushing Horan, throwing him in the back of his car and tying him up.

    They were accused of shooting Horan in the back and killing him as he tried to run away.

    Nearly a week after killing Horan, the 6-foot-4 Franklin was accused of forcing himself into the Leesburg home of then 75-year-old Alice Mae Johnson, beating her nearly to death with his fists and a hammer before stealing her car.

    The injuries left her in a wheelchair.

    Gross said Franklin apparently fled to St. Petersburg in Johnson's stolen car. Authorities caught up with Franklin there and found the murder weapon, a .357 magnum, under the seat -- ending the 2-week crime rampage.

    Franklin pleaded guilty in the Horan and Johnson cases, for which he received 6 consecutive life sentences.

    In 2004, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously upheld the conviction and death sentence for Franklin, who is being held at a state prison in Raiford.

    (Source: The Daily Commercial)

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Case Information:

    Upon imposition of the death sentence, Franklin filed a Direct Appeal with the Florida Supreme Court on 06/25/07. This appeal raised the following issues: (1) admission of hearsay evidence at the penalty phase, (2) admission of portions of a taped interview with a newspaper reporter, (3) admission of hearsay statements made by the victim at the guilt phase, (4) refusal to accept Franklin’s stipulation to his prior crimes in lieu of testimony, (5) improper victim impact statements, (6) CCP aggravator not found, (7) pecuniary gain aggravator not found, and (8) Ring violations. This Direct Appeal was denied on 06/21/07, and a mandate was issued on 09/26/07.

    Franklin filed a 3.851 Motion in the Circuit Court on 11/14/08. This motion is pending.

    Status conference held; EH scheduled for July 2011

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Death row inmate seeks new hearing

    An inmate on death row must have lost Jesus, or at least decided it was worth letting his lawyers fight for his life.

    Quawn Moses Franklin and his lawyer from the Commission on Capital Cases were in the Lake County courthouse this week, arguing for a new penalty phase hearing in his capital murder conviction for the 2001 killing of a Leesburg security guard.

    This hearing comes more than a year after the 32-year-old Franklin said the Lord was his lawyer and salvation, and he no longer wanted to appeal his sentence.

    In an earlier report by psychologist Glenn Ross Caddy, one that was attached to the lawyers' motion for a competency hearing, Franklin said: "I don't want to participate in what you are doing, for if this is to save me, I tell you, I am already saved. It's God who will determine my destiny, not the state of Florida."

    "He seemed to have believed his salvation was with God, and not with the judicial system," prosecutor Bill Gross said Wednesday during a phone interview.

    It's not clear what changed Franklin's mind on the appeals process or what his religions convictions are now. His attorney, Maria Perinetti, would only say that Franklin signed the motion to go forward with the appeals process.

    Franklin was sentenced to death in 2004 for the killing of Jerry Lawley, a guard at the Elberta Crate and Box Factory in Leesburg. At the time, Franklin, 32, was already serving six life sentences for a series of other violent crimes in Lake County, including the murder of pizza-delivery man John Horan and the attempted murder of a 75-year-old woman.

    "He was a one-man crime wave," Gross said.

    Franklin's attorneys are arguing that his attorneys in 2004 conducted an inadqueate job during the penalty phase of his capital murder trial by not inviting his family, his foster mother and a psychologist to testify on his behalf.

    Caddy and several members of Franklin's family did testify Monday, painting a bleak picture of his life, starting when his biological mother dropped him off at a friend's house when he was 6 weeks old and not returning for 8 years. Franklin grew up in Leesburg, not knowing the truth until his mother returned and took him to St. Petersburg.

    Franklin tried to run away to Leesburg several times, including once on a stolen bike. His apparently didn't meet his "adoptive" mother again until he was 15 -- when he was in intensive care unit after being stabbed trying to rob a man placing newspapers in a vending machine.

    Franklin's hearing was initially scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, but ended after one day because Perinetti's co-attorney, Mark Gruber, became ill.

    Gross said an upcoming conference call will determine when to resume the hearings.

    http://www.dailycommercial.com/searc...Moses+Franklin

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    QUAWN M. FRANKILN v THE STATE OF FLORIDA and MICHAEL D. CREWS

    In an opinion dated January 16, 2014, the Florida Supreme Court DENIED Franklin's petition for post-conviction and habeas relief.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #6
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    On June 6, 2014, Franklin filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/flo...cv00314/298419

  7. #7
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    Today the Florida Supreme Court denied his Hurst appeal.

    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/d...8/sc17-824.pdf

  8. #8
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Prato, Italy
    Posts
    1,275
    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Franklin's petition for a writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Florida
    Case Numbers: (SC17-824)
    Decision Date: February 15, 2018

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/...18zor_19m2.pdf
    Last edited by Mastro Titta; 11-13-2018 at 02:04 PM.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •