Man Tied to Racial Killings Convicted in Two Murders

Joseph Paul Franklin, who already is serving a prison term for killing two blacks in Utah, was convicted Friday in the deaths of an interracial couple after a prosecutor said their slayings were close to “killing for sport.”

Franklin, of Mobile, Ala., was charged with shooting Alphonse Manning Jr. and Toni Schwenn in a Madison parking lot on Aug. 7, 1977. Manning was black, and Schwenn was white. Both were 23.

The Dane County Circuit Court jury deliberated about two hours before finding him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison, and Judge William D. Byrne immediately sentenced Franklin to two consecutive life terms.

‘History of Violence’

“The defendant’s history of violence, terror and murder prompts this court to do all it can so that he will never kill again,” the judge said.

Franklin, 35, already is serving two life sentences in the federal prison in Marion, Ill., for killing two black Utah joggers in 1980.

He was acquitted in the 1982 shooting of National Urban League President Vernon E. Jordan Jr. in Fort Wayne, Ind. He was convicted in 1984 in Chattanooga, Tenn., of bombing a synagogue and was indicted that year in Georgia in the 1978 shooting of Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.

Friends and family of the victims wept and held hands when the verdict was read.

“He got just what he deserved,” said Shirley Smith, a niece of Manning from Chicago. “If there’s any more he can get, he should.”

Message From Jury

Midway through deliberations, the jury sent a message to Judge William D. Byrne saying it had reached verdicts on two of the charges and asked whether it had to decide two other counts.

Byrne replied that the jury did not need to consider two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

Franklin, who represented himself, showed no emotion when the verdict was read or the sentence passed. He replied: “No, your honor,” when asked if he wished to comment.

“I am opposed to capital punishment, but Mr. Franklin puts those beliefs to a sore test,” said Dane County Dist. Atty. Hal Harlowe. “Mr. Franklin is a pathetic creature who will be dangerous until the day he dies.”

Under current law, Franklin would be eligible for parole in October, 1990.

‘Killing for Sport’

In closing arguments earlier Friday, Harlowe called the killings “horrible, senseless and pointless” and the “closest thing to killing for sport” he had ever seen.

Franklin denied in his closing arguments that he killed the couple or that he was even in Wisconsin at the time of the slayings. He had previously said he lied in a confession to get out of a federal prison in Illinois and into Wisconsin.

A life sentence is “the next best thing to being dead,” Franklin told jurors. “Would you sentence a loved one, a son, a daughter, a wife or a husband, based on the evidence” in his trial? he asked.