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The Birmingham News
10/03/2000
KENT FAULK, News staff writer HUNTSVILLE – Jury selection is to continue today in the capital murder trial of a Huntsville man charged in the hatchet slayings of his parents. Jeffrey Franklin, 20, also is charged with three counts of attempted murder in hatchet attacks on two younger brothers and a younger sister on March 10, 1998.
Another younger sister was not at home at the time. Jury selection began Monday afternoon before Madison County Circuit Judge Loyd H. Little Jr. Crime news and statistics Franklin defense attorneys plan to put on an insanity defense. A Huntsville police investigator testified in an earlier hearing that Franklin said after his arrest – following a car chase through south Huntsville – that it was like some “evil being,” with horns sticking out of his head and eyes had taken over his body.
Franklin, who at the time was still in high school, had satanic symbols on his body when he was arrested, police have said. Franklin also told investigators he had been taking the prescription drugs Ritalin, Prozac and Klonopin and had not slept for two days before the attack. The estate of Franklin’s parents – Gerald and Cynthia Franklin – and guardians for his brothers and sisters filed lawsuits against Franklin, his psychiatrists and the drug manufacturers. Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they couldn’t comment on whether Franklin or his siblings will testify. © 2000
The Birmingham News. Used with permission.
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Heart of the Valley residents remember brutal crime 10 years later
Updated:Apr 11, 2008 1:50 PM EDT