Ricky Jackson, Hillary Clinton And The Death Penalty

Last night as I was watching the Democratic Town Hall hosted by CNN, a man named Ricky Jackson took the mic. Ricky said that he spent 39 years in prison, part of it on death row, for a murder he didn’t commit. He emotionally confronted Hillary Clinton about her position on the death penalty.

The tiny bit of his story caught my interest so I looked up information about his case. Here is Ricky’s story.

Ricky Jackson then and now

Ricky Jackson is an Ohio man who, in 1975, was accused of murdering Harold Franks, a Cleveland area money order salesman. Jackson was 19-years old. Without a witness, the state had no case. Some reports say that the witness was 12-years old and other reports say that the witness was 13-years old.  Edward Vernon was the reason why the state charged Ricky as the trigger-man who killed Harold Franks. Ricky was sentenced to death.

Ricky’s death sentence was vacated because of a technical error. Two others who were convicted along with Ricky were also sentenced to death. They are commonly referred to as the Bridgeman brothers and they remained on death row until 1978 when the Supreme Court declared that Ohio’s death penalty was unconstitutional. One of the Bridgman brothers came within 20 days of execution.