Richard Franklin, convicted this week of manslaughter for the 1979 death of Gregory McDavid, can’t be sent to prison because he’s already earned enough “good time” credits in a secure psychiatric facility to warrant his immediate release, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office says.
However, Immigration and Custom Enforcement has begun deportation procedings against Franklin, now 47 and a native of Jamaica, for putting a bullet into McDavid, ending the 30-year-old father’s life, the DA’s office adds.
In 1995, Franklin confessed killing McDavid to a community service officer in the Brockton housing development where he then lived. However, he was deemed unable to stand trial and was instead put in a psychiatric lockup until 2005, when he was deemed competent enough to face charges.
At his trial, prosecutors said Franklin originally intended to rob McDavid, whom he believed to be a drug dealer, but that when he went up to McDavid’s car, he instead shot the man, who managed to get into a nearby apartment building before collapsing.
Dawn McDavid-Bauman, only 8 when her father was killed, addressed the court. The DA’s office provided a summary of her statement:
“I would like to begin today by telling you all about my father: All his likes and dislikes, all his hopes and dreams, all the many memorable times we shared. But I can’t. I can’t because, somehow, in my mind, my life mostly begins the day he was killed.
“It seems like a very unfair trick for my mind to play, but almost all the happy times we must have shared before that day seem to be beyond my reach. However, I can still remember the day he was killed like it was yesterday.
“Mr. Franklin, a complete stranger to my family, taught us a lesson that day back in 1979. Fear is what you taught us. Fear of life, because of its lack of stability and the sadness it can hold; fear of death, because we know how suddenly and unexpectedly it can enter your life. And, as strange as it may sound, fear of happiness.”
