A Douglas County jury deliberated all day Wednesday but did not reach a decision on the punishment for Tracen Franklin, who was convicted last week of the 2010 murder of Bobby Tillman.
The jury wrote in a note, delivered to Judge William McClain at 5 p.m., “We have not reached a decision but we are making progress.” Then they asked to go home for the night.
The jurors’ choices of punishment for Franklin are death, life without the possibility of parole, or life with the possibility of parole once he has spent at least three decades in prison.
Franklin, 20, and three of his friends were accused of kicking and stomping Tillman so ferociously that his heart tore and he died. The attack on the 18-year-old Georgia Perimeter College freshman came as a party was ending Nov. 6, 2010. Franklin is the only one of the four to face the death penalty.
One of the other three, Emanuel Boykins, pleaded guilty to murder last spring to avoid the death penalty and admitted he threw the first punch. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Quantez Devonta Mallory and Horace Damon have not gone to trial. District Attorney David McDade is not asking for death sentences against them.
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