The charges include the murders of nine women and a teenage girl in Los Angeles, according to The Associated Press.
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In May, 2016, Franklin was convicted of 10 counts of first-degree murder last month for crimes dating back more than 30 years.
Today the jury recommended that Franklin receive the death penalty.
The jury vote sentencing him to death followed an emotional appeal from a prosecutor who argued that jurors should afford Franklin the same compassion that he showed his victims by opting for the “ultimate penalty” of execution. Franklin will face a formal sentencing hearing at a later date.
Most of the killings fit a similar pattern. After strangling, or shooting, his victims, Franklin would then dump their bodies along abandoned roadsides or in the trash. There was a 14-year break during his killing spree between 1988 and 2002, earning him the nickname “The Grim Sleeper”. Family members of the victims wept as the punishment was read out.
The same Los Angeles jury that convicted Lonnie David Franklin Jr.in the murders of nine women and a 15-year-old girl over three decades recommended a death sentence for the serial killer dubbed the “Grim Sleeper”. One said: “Thank you”.
“That’s the person who shot me”, Washington said, pointing out Franklin in court, almost 30 years after she was left to die. His youngest victim was just 15.
An undercover detective posed as a waiter at a pizza restaurant where he was attending a birthday party.
Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman became emotional when talking about the relationship she developed with those still grieving Franklin’s victims during the investigation and court proceedings, which dragged on for years.
The name “Grim Sleeper” referred to the gaps between the killings.
Silverman was able to introduce evidence of four additional murders during the penalty phase, including one that linked Franklin to a killing in 2000. She also presented evidence of a 1984 slaying a year before the first murder he was convicted of.
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The jury also convicted Franklin of attempted murder for an attack on an 11th victim, Enierta Washington, who survived being shot in the chest, raped, pushed out of a auto and left for dead in 1988. She remembers the man sexually assaulting her and taking a photo of her as she lost consciousness. Photos of other victims were also found in the home.
