Jury Recommends Death Penalty for LA’s Serial Killer ‘Grim Sleeper’

The state of California has not carried out an execution since 2006, when a federal judge noticed chemical problems with the drugs administered during lethal injection.

Lonnie Franklin Jr., left, appears in Los Angeles Superior Court during closing arguments of his trail Monday, May 2, 2016, in Los Angeles. The “Grim Sleeper” serial killer trial is coming to a close in Los Angeles after months of testimony. Franklin is charged with killing nine women and a 15-year-old girl between 1985 and 2007. They were shot or strangled and their bodies dumped in alleys and trash bins in South Los Angeles and nearby areas. Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool

The 12 jurors who convicted 63-year-old serial killer Lonnie Franklin Jr. in May, recommended the death penalty June 6, in the next step of the high-profile Los Angeles case. 

The jurors spent 5 hours deliberating their decision, which now must be upheld and imposed by a judge at the formal sentencing in August, according to Reuters. 

Franklin Jr., known as the “Grim Sleeper,” was convicted on May 5 of shooting seven women to death from August 1985 to September 1988, and killing three more in a second wave of killings from March 2002 to January 2007.

A former police garage attendant and garbage collector, Franklin Jr. is known as one of California’s worst serial killers.

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• ‘Grim Sleeper’ Serial Killer Convicted of 10 Murders Across Los Angeles