Chapter 36

San Quentin

It was now Judge Kathleen Kennedy’s turn to address Franklin, and she got right to the point.

“All right, Lonnie Franklin, the time has come.

“All of the family members that have wanted to speak have had a chance, and I spent a lot of time thinking about you and your case and all of the evidence that was heard,” she told Franklin.

“And I’ve asked myself, as I’m sure many of the people in this audience have asked themselves, and I have heard expressed today, is why? Why did all of this happen? Why did you do all of these things?

“All of these women were defenseless. They were not a threat to you in any way, shape, or form. And after thinking about it and pondering it and going over it in my mind, I have come to this conclusion: that it doesn’t matter why. There could never be a justification for what you’ve done. Because what you’ve done is not justifiable under the laws of God or the laws of man.

“And so it doesn’t matter why, although I’m curious and I’m sure books will be written and maybe psychiatrists or psychologists will examine this and come up with some kind of a theory to explain it.

“I mean, it’s obvious that you have a deep-seated hatred for women that started long ago. I mean, the first crime that we heard about was the rape of the woman from Germany that occurred in 1974. So this hatred of women is long and deep-seated. Why? I don’t know.

“And I want it to be clear that even though all of these crimes that you have committed are horrible, and, as I said, without any kind of justification, the sentence that I’m about to impose is not a sentence of vengeance.

“I believe that a society has the right to make the determination that when someone has committed crimes that are as horrible as these crimes are, that society can say that person, as a punishment and as a protection for others, does not deserve to continue to live.

“And I can’t think of anyone that I have encountered, in all my many years in the criminal-justice system, that has committed the kind of monstrous and the number of monstrous crimes that you have. These murders of these young women were horrible. And the attempted murder of Miss Washington, all horrible, and the effect of which all of these people have been suffering and will continue to suffer. But, hopefully, as many of them said, they feel they are going to receive some peace.

“And I hope that you are able to leave here with some peace today. But it’s not vengeance; it’s justice, Mr. Franklin.

“And so, Lonnie Franklin Jr.,” Kennedy said, picking up a piece of paper to read, “For the first-degree murder of Debra Jackson as alleged in count one and the special circumstance of multiple murder, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.

“For the first-degree special-circumstance murder of Henrietta Wright as alleged in count two, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.

“For the first-degree and special-circumstance murder of Barbara Ware as alleged in count three, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.

“For the first-degree special-circumstance murder of Bernita Sparks as alleged in count four, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.

“For the first-degree special-circumstance murder of Mary Lowe as alleged in count five, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.

“For the first-degree special-circumstance murder of Lachrica Jefferson as alleged in count six, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.

“For the first-degree special-circumstance murder of Alicia Alexander as alleged in count seven, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.

“For the first-degree special-circumstance murder of Princess Berthomieux as alleged in count nine, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.

“For the first-degree special-circumstance murder of Valerie McCorvey as alleged in count ten, it is the sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.

“And for the first-degree special-circumstance murder of Janecia Peters as alleged in count eleven, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you shall suffer the death penalty.”

On top of these death sentences, Franklin also received a life term for the attempted murder of Enietra Washington, count 8.

Kennedy next told Franklin that he would be delivered within the coming ten days from the custody of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department that handles the jails in Los Angeles to the warden of the maximum-security state penitentiary at San Quentin.

“All right, the defendant is remanded at this time,” said Kennedy. “And thank all of you.”

And with that, the case of Lonnie Franklin Jr., which dated back more than thirty years, was over. It was a good day for Los Angeles.

• • •

It was a good day for me, too, but an emotionally draining day at the same time. This case didn’t go back thirty years for me, but it had consumed me for the last ten years—a major chunk of my life. I had seen senseless murder up close and witnessed how it ravaged families. I watched how the acts of one sick man shaped the lives of those left to live in his wake. When he ended these women’s lives, he set off a chain reaction that had devastating consequences. He irrevocably changed their loved ones forever, leaving human shells where vibrant beings once existed.

So, on this day when Lonnie Franklin Jr. met justice, I felt a weight lift; the hold that this dark, sad story had on me for so long finally let up. My only regret—one I am sure I share with the victims’ family members—is never finding out what drove Franklin to commit such heinous crimes.

• • •

On August 17, 2016, Lonnie Franklin Jr., 64, was admitted to San Quentin’s death row, an alley that for him has only one way out.