There is no question that Tracen Franklin joined in the punching and stomping frenzy that led to Bobby Tillman’s death, said a defense attorney said in the opening of the death penalty trial in Douglas County Wednesday.
The question is what were Franklin’s intentions and did Franklin deliver the blow that tore Tillman’s heart, defense attorney Bruce Harvey said in his opening statement.
Franklin admits he was there on Nov. 6, 2010, Harvey said. And in the next few weeks the jury would “hear from him … what his participation was,” Harvey said.
But, “Mr. Franklin did not intentionally cause the death of anyone.”
Franklin, now 20, is facing the death penalty for allegedly beating and stomping to death the 18-year-old Tillman outside the house where a party was held to celebrate the good grades of two high school girls.
Emanuel Boykins, who threw the first punch, pleaded guilty in April to murdering Tillman and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Two other men are also charged with murder but District Attorney David McDade is not seeking the death penalty against them. Franklin is the only one of the four defendants who so far has declined McDade’s offer of entering a plea agreement in lieu of a death penalty trial.
While Franklin did not start the deadly fight, said assistant district attorney Bonnie Smith, he made the “personal choice to follow his buddy” a hill and to join in the frenzy, hitting, kicking and stomping Tillman after Boykns knocked him to the ground with his first punch.
It was his “personal, individual actions that has him seated at that [defense] table,” Smith said.
One of the questions Harvey put to the jurors was “How can you ascribe any particular blow to Mr. Franklin?”
It took almost two weeks to seat a jury 0f 12 plus three alternates. On Wednesday afternoon the seven women and eight men listened to opening statements previewing what they will hear over the next few weeks. If they convict Franklin of murdering Tillman, they then will decide his punishment; life in prison with the possibility of parole, life without parole or with death. They can also consider ocnvictions on lesser charges.
Franklin and Tillman were similar in some respects, according to descriptions of the two offered by defense and prosecuting attorneys.
Both young men were raised by single mothers who moved to Douglasville to find a safer community for their son’s — Tillman from California and Franklin from Florida.
They also were described as caring, considerate sons. Tillman asked his mother’s permission to go to the party and sought her opinion of his wardrobe before he left. Franklin was a freshman at Alabama State University who had come home for the weekend to take care of his mother as she convalesced from surgery.
Both headed out that night intending to dance, listen to music, talk and flirt with the girls they expected to see there.
One difference was Tillman was invited to the small party, and Franklin was among the dozens who crashed the celebration once word of it spread.
Eventually, the two found themselves outside at the same time once the parents shut down the party that had gotten too big and out of control. The teenagers — perhaps as many as 80 — had been told to go home.
But two girls got into a fist fight on the lawn because one had flirted with the other’s boyfriend and a mob mentality seemed to take over.
In the frenzy, one of them hit Boykins, who announced that since he didn’t hit girls he would hit the next male he saw, the prosecutor said.
Tillman was nearby, sitting on the trunk of his friend’s father’s Mercedes.
“Tracen Franklin didn’t instigate anything,” Harvey said. “It was Emanuel Boykins who ran up to Bobby Tillman and him. That’s how this all started … It’s certainly not intentional murder on the part of Tracen Franklin.”
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