Five Fucking Years

Five years. 

     FIVE YEARS.

         FIVE YEARS.

FIVE FUCKING YEARS!

OK, it's really 4 years 9 months and 29 days. 

But that's a quibble.

That's how far into the future they've planned the killing.  Talk about premeditation.  Talk about prior calculation and design (which, under our statute turns garden variety murder into aggravated murder).

It's Antonio Sanchez Franklin, convicted of the brutal murders of Ophelia, Ivory, and Anthony Franklin (his grandmother, grandfather, and uncle).  The crimes were, the jury and the courts agreed, committed with (here's that phrase again) "prior calculation and design."

Here's how the Ohio Supreme Court explained it,

     This court has never set forth a bright-line test for discerning the presence or absence of prior calculation and design but instead undertakes a unique analysis of the facts of each case. . . . . In the instant matter, the facts demonstrate prior calculation and design.

     Obviously, appellant knew his victims very well, since they were close relatives with whom appellant resided. His relationship with each was clearly strained. The evidence indicates that despite the wishes of Ophelia and Ivory Franklin, appellant created friction by refusing to get a job or attend school. In fact, approximately two weeks prior to the murders, his grandparents gave him thirty days to find another place to live, a prospect that caused appellant to act in a hostile manner toward his family.
     Moreover, appellant was at odds with Anthony Franklin. While he was being questioned by Dayton police in Nashville, appellant, in reference to Anthony, exclaimed, “Son of a bitch raped me, that’s why I killed ’em all. * * * He raped me when I was fourteen, and the old man knew about it, but that was his son, so he didn’t do anything about it.” Appellant also revealed that Anthony had accused him of being gay.

     There is also evidence to support the view that the accused gave thought and preparation to choosing the murder weapon and the murder site. He used various weapons on the three victims. He shot Ophelia and struck her repeatedly with a blunt instrument, and beat Ivory and Anthony with blunt instruments as well. Unsatisfied, appellant proceeded to intentionally set a fire. These events occurred in a place where appellant knew that all three individuals could be found at once.

     Finally, it does not appear that the murders were instantaneous events, but instead were carried out over a period of time.

All of which is, if it's all true,* pretty compelling evidence of prior calculation and design.

As, of course, is a plan - hell, it's an order - to commit a murder, purposely causing the death of another as the statute says, in 4 years, 9 months, and 29 days.  Especially when you've even planned the particulars of how the killing is to be done.

I'd be remiss here if I left the impression that there are no other killings on the horizon here in the Buckeye State.  In the nearly 5 years before Franklin's special day Ohio has 27 others lined up.  Each neatly and precisely scheduled.

Next up is William Montgomery from Toledo, just under a month from now, on April 11.  But that's only the latest date.  September 28, 2012, the good folks at the Ohio Supreme Court ordered his murder for August 6, 2014, a mere 23 months and some days in the future.  But well, Ohio's had serious trouble killin folks.  The Governor rescheduled his murder for February 11, 2015, then or September 17, 2015, then . . . . Damn, this is long.  Here's a list:

• August 6, 2014
• February 11, 2015
• September 17, 2015
• August 15, 2016
• June 13, 2017
• October 18, 2017
• January 3, 2018
• April 11, 2018

Given all that, maybe the most you can say is

Maybe

Which is probably for the best given that there's a fair chance Montgomery didn't actually kill Debra Ogle and Cynthia Tincher 32 years ago.  But you know, that's maybe just one of those things.  I mean there was a trial.  And the county prosecutor is quite sure he's guilty, so really, who's gonna kick up a fuss?

Anyway, after Montgomery, there's Robert Van Hook in July and then Cleveland Jackson and then Warren Henness and then . . . . And more than 20 others until Quisi Bryan On October 16, 2022.  

And now Antonio Franklin.  In just short of 5 fucking years.

His date set this morning (yesterday morning, actually, since it's a bit after midnight now) by the Justices of the Supreme Court of Ohio.  Their latest planned aggravated murder.

"Depend upon it, sir," Dr. Johnson said, 

when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Five years, though, that's maybe a little different.

On the other hand, don't hold your breath.  I'm not a betting man, but it's even money that whatever may be happening at 10 in the morning on January 12, 2023, it won't be the murder of Antonio Sanchez Franklin by the State of Ohio.  There's just too much that can happen in five years.  Including, just maybe, the end of our cycle of vengeance.  

The maybe innocent William Montgomery next month?  That's a different story.

* * *

Here's today's order.

1998-2061. State v. Franklin.Montgomery C.P. No. 97CR1139. On motion to set execution date. Motion granted. Antonio Sanchez Franklin’s sentence shall be carried into execution by the warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, or in his absence, by the deputy warden on Thursday, January 12, 2023, in accordance with the statutes so provided.

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*I have no inside knowledge.  I never represented Franklin, haven't read the transcript of his trial, haven't discussed the case with any of his lawyers.  All I've done is read some court opinions.

Contract Killings - with Correction

Ohio 2014 - One

Ohio 2015 - Nobody

Ohio 2016 - Eleven

That's executions, actual for 2014 and now 2015, scheduled for 2016.

You know the backstory. Ohio has an unmatched record of demonstrated incompetence in performing lethal injections.* Our last killing, Dennis McGuire in January last year, was particularly ugly. And precisely what they'd been warned would happen with their new experimental murder method. Alan Johnson covered it for the Columbus Dispatch and described what he saw.

Dennis McGuire struggled, repeatedly gasping loudly for air and making snorting and choking sounds, before succumbing to a new two-drug execution method today. . . .After being injected at 10:29 a.m., about four minutes later McGuire started struggling and gasping loudly for air, making snorting and choking sounds which lasted for at least 10 minutes. His chest heaved and his left fist clinched as deep, snorting sounds emanated from his mouth. However, for the last several minutes before he was pronounced dead, he was still.

So, and given the years of ongoing litigation here, the state backed off, called a brief halt, and saod ot would rewrite its protocol for the umpteenth time.  Which they did.  And given the litigation, well, the judge called halts and then everyone kind of agreed to court-ordered halts for a while.  And they decided not to use midazolam and hydromorphone any more.  But that meant finding some other drug and then the secrecy litigation because if you know where we get the drugs we'll have to kill you.

And finally, on Friday, the Governor who probably wants to be President decided to stop it all for a bit.  This year's planned killings, which included some from years past, all got punted into next year. When there are now 11 scheduled.  One a month from January through November.  

Will they all happen?  Probably not.  Some court will likely stop at least one or two.  The Governor may commute one of the sentences.  And of course the whole thing could implode again if we can't get the drugs or fuck another killing up - as we have so many.

And then there's the Supreme Court which is apparently going to decide by June whether killing with midazolam is unconstitutional and, more important really, whether the states can keep all the details of who's doing what a secret. whether a person complaining that the state intends to kill him unconstitutionally must suggest a constitutional method by which he can be killed.** Whatever they decide, expect more litigation.

In the meantime, though, and in 2016:

January 21 - Ronald Phillips
February 19 - Ray Tibbetts
March 23 - Alva Campbell, Jr.
April 20 - Gregory Lott
May 18 - Angelo Fears
June 22 - Warren Henness
July 20 - Cleveland Jackson
August 15 - William Montgomery
September 21 - Kareem Jackson
October 19 - Robert Van Hook
November 16 - Jeffrey Wogenstahl

To what end, exactly?

Each of them was found guilty of aggravated murder.  In each case, it was determined that the aggravating circumstance of the crime outweighed whatever mitigating factors were presented at trial.

Pretend that they got it right.  Every time.  Pretend these men all did terrible things and they had almost nothing to weigh against the crime but themselves.  Hell, maybe it's even true.  Maybe they are, or some of them are, the worst of the worst who did the worst things.  It could be.  (And the beauty of it is that there's no way actually to know, so we can pretend all we like.)

What then?

Van Hook will have been on death row for just over 31 years at his scheduled murder.  Montgomery nearly 30.  For Cleveland Jackson, the fastest of these 11, it will still be nearly 14 years.  And he'll be 38 when they kill him next year.  If they do.  At the other end, Alva Campbell will be 67. 

Whoever these people are that we're planning to kill, they're not who they were back then.  But by god, we're committed to doing it.  They must die.

Just not until next year.

When we kill Ron Phillips next January, if we do, it will have been just over two years since we botched Dennis McGuire's execution.  For just over two years, Ohio will have managed to kill not a single person on death row.  Somehow, the state will have survived unscathed.  Because, really, there's no need.

But if no need?  Then we're killing because we want to.  It's a conscious choice we make.

You, Ron Phillips.  You, Ray Tibbets.  You Alva Campbell, Gregory Lott, Angelo Fears. You, all of you.  We don't need to kill you. But we want to.
It's not that you need to die.  That's not something we can control.  No, we want to kill you.  More precisely, we want some prison guards we don't know to kill you.
We'll arrange it.  Pay for it.  Read about it in the newspaper afterwards.  Our arranged contract killings.  Because we want you murdered.  By those guys over there.

Next year.

 

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*We are, after all, the state that tried for two hours but ultimately failed to kill Romell Broom.  He remains the only survivor of an execution attempt by lethal injection.  (Oral argument in the Ohio Supreme Court on the question of whether the state gets to try again to kill him will be the morning of June 9.)

**Sorry. I knew the right question when I wrote this last night.  I just didn't type the right question.