Garbage collector sentenced to death in ‘Grim Sleeper’ serial killer case
The California serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper has been sentenced to death for a homicidal spree which targeted poor black women over two decades.
Lonnie Franklin, 63, a former garbage collector, appeared impassive as he was sentenced on Wednesday for murdering a teenage girl and nine women in southern Los Angeles between 1985 and 2007.
“What you’ve done is not justifiable under the laws of God or laws of man,” superior court judge Kathleen Kennedy told him as victims’ relatives looked on, some in tears. Others sighed and said “amen”.
What you’ve done is not justifiable under the laws of God or laws of man
The judge read the names of the 10 victims, pausing each time to say: “You shall suffer the death penalty.”
The sentence put fresh scrutiny on California’s controversial death penalty system, which both opponents and advocates consider dysfunctional and a waste of money.
The Grim Sleeper nickname was coined for an apparent 13-year hiatus in slayings but authorities now think Franklin never rested. During the penalty phase of his trial prosecutors linked him to five additional murders. Detectives believe he may have killed at least 25 women.
Some were drug addicts and prostitutes and nearly all were from poor, marginalised neighbourhoods. Community members complained it took police two decades to link the cases to a single killer. Most were shot at close range, though two were strangled and two were both strangled and shot.