My name is Franklin Lynch and I am currently on death row. What I am seeking is sincere correspondence with an organisation or someone who can empathise with my adverse situation and possibly be of some legal assistance or supportive in your own way.Although I'm not here by choice how I came to exist in this environment (prison) was based on how my ineffective trial. Attorneys allowed the District Attorney to influence the jurors' thoughts into convicting me on circumstantial evidence.
My case mainly consisted of fabricated testimony, misidentification and by me having possession of (not knowingly) stolen property ie a bracelet.
Even though I worked a few odd jobs here and there I would sometimes buy items on the black market and resell them at a retail price as a supplement to my income. In 1987 I had purchased this gold bracelet from a seller on the street. Soon after I resold the bracelet to a legitimate broker who owned a retail store where I had to show my Driver's Licence and give my fingerprint.
Several months later I was arrested and charged with possession of stolen property, robbery and murder.
Truly sympathising with the victim I was shocked! Not only of the charges, but of learning that the bracelet I had bought and sold was taken from an elderly lady who was beaten up and eventually died!
Before and during my trial there was some negative publicity about my case (showing my picture all the time etc) so when it was time for a line everyone already knew what I looked like and therefore had no problem in picking me out from the others as a person they may have seen in some of the areas.
When I went to trial the District Attorney knew his case was too weak to ensure a conviction so what the DA did was gathered every case similar in the county to the one I was being charged with so that when the jury heard all of these similar charges it would strengthen his case, leaving no doubt in the jurors' minds that I had to be the perpetrator of these crimes.
No-one said they saw me commit the crime because I was not there! Non of my fingerprints were at the crime scene because I was not there! Non of my DNA or fibres were at the crime scene because I was not there!
But it boiled down to me getting convicted based on a few people misidentifying me as being NEAR some of the areas where the crimes occurred (and all of them had either already seen my photo on the news or in the paper) and the fact that I had possession of the stolen bracelet.
That's how I came to exist on death row, based purely on circumstantial evidence. Common sense would have told me not to sell a bracelet that I knew was stolen to a legitimate retail store owner using my Licence as identification along with my fingerprint.
But the moral of the story is I would NEVER in three life times have gone to those extremes to acquire a bracelet from anyone. If I knew it was stolen maybe I would not have bought it and if I had purchased the bracelet knowing that it was stolen, I sure would not have taken it to a legitimate business to sell it, I would have resold it on the same black market for a profit.
Now I'm sitting on death row struggling with my appeal attorneys to prove my innocence.