People v. Franklin

Following a bench trial in the circuit court of Cook County, the defendant, Russell Franklin, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment. The appellate court affirmed the conviction in an unpublished order (130 Ill. App. 3d 1157), and we allowed the defendant’s petition for leave to appeal.

The murder victim, Theodore Hawkins, was shot and killed in his apartment in Chicago during the evening of June 9, 1982. Three days later, on June 12, the defendant spoke to two Chicago police officers on the street concerning the murder; the defendant was a friend of the victim. The…