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Crime

52-Year-Old Tried as a Juvenile and Convicted of Murder Committed 36 Years Ago

Dec. 22, 2012 9:51pm Liz Klimas

More than three decades ago Lena Triano was found dead in her Westridge, New Jersey home. Now justice has finally been brought to the man who murdered her. He is 52 years old at present day but was tried as a juvenile given the age he was when the crime was committed.

Carlton Franklin Age 52 Convicted of Lena Triano 1976 Murder But Tried as a Juvenile According to 1976 Laws

Carlton Franklin (L) was convicted at age 52 for murdering Lena Triano (R) when he was 15. Franklin was tried under 1976 laws though, meaning as a juvenile. (Image via New Jersey Star-Ledger)

On Thursday, Judge Robert Kirsch found Carlton Franklin guilty of raping and killing 57-year-old Triano in 1976, according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger. Triano’s case was only recently reopened and Franklin was pegged more concretely thanks to the more modern use of DNA evidence.

The Star-Tribune reported that Franklin would not be tried as an adult because he was 15 when the crime was committed. The laws in 1976 prevented those under the age of 18 from being tried as an adult.

The New York Times reported Franklin’s lawyer Edward Bisichio saying that because of the time gap between the crime and conviction, the situation surrounding the laws was “unusual.” It was only two years after Triano’s murder, the Times pointed out, that New Jersey changed its laws to allow those 13 and older to be tried in criminal court.

Here’s some of the debate regarding Franklin’s trial as a juvenile from the Times:

Theodore Romankow, the Union County prosecutor, objected to treating Mr. Franklin as a juvenile. “For a 15-year-old, a 25-year-old, a 35-year-old, for anyone to do something this brutal is horrific,” he said.

Alexander Shalom, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in New Jersey, said that developments in neuroscience had reinforced the idea that juveniles had less risk perception, less foresight, less self control than adults.

“That’s not changed by long lags between crime and punishment,” he said. “Regardless of who he is today, he committed the crime as a juvenile, and when we’re trying to gauge his moral culpability, we’re looking at who he was then.”

Under those 1976 laws, Franklin could now face up to 20 years in prison with his conviction. The Times reported further that prosecutors have said under 1976 laws, Franklin’ sentence would be “indeterminate, not to exceed life.” He will be sentenced on Jan. 31, according to the Star-Tribune.

Triano’s family is thankful that justice has finally been served. Triano’s niece Barbara Hill said her father — Triano’s brother who hired detectives in an effort to catch the killer — “would have been really gratified to see this day come.”

Let us know what you think of Franklin’s trial as a juvenile for the crime he committed in 1976 by taking our poll:

(H/T: Fox News)

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Comments (75)

RIGS
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 9:56am
Give him the 20yrs w/o parole. You have to go by the old law at the time of the crime no matter how you think……………………………………

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- paperpushermj
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 12:52pm
  Which law are you talking about the laws against Murdering and Raping or the laws governing Age?
  
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- pdw
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 2:56pm
  Funny how people want to set in judgement over others and set the law standards. When we change a law then it applies for everyone but you cannot go back to the time of the crime an have that law change a law for one person. That is not law that is only destroying our law system.
  
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- PaBowHunter
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 7:59pm
  I hate to say it, but the law is the law and we must follow it or we are no better than the left. I agree that he should get the full 20 years. I’d like to see him get the death penalty, but we are supposed to be a nation of laws not men. Laws decide punishment not men. And unfortunately the law when the crime was committed only allowed for 20 years maximum.
  
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- G-WHIZ
  Posted on December 24, 2012 at 11:17am
  Great!! As a “juvie” he will haveto die-in-prison….be “reborn-again” and wait till he’s 17 to get out free!!
  
  Report this comment
- omgfolks
  Posted on December 24, 2012 at 11:44am
  The law is the law. no matter whether you like it or not, it must be followed. Too bad for the family though
  
  Report this comment
jungle J
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 9:45am
If Obama had a son……but she deserved it …she was white….more coming…soon. They hate you because they were taught to hate you. Why else would they? we give them everything that we can. We help them more than we help our own children at times. They hate because theyare taught to hate us….who taught them? Their hustling religious pimps.

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riker01
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 9:41am
Who cares, really. Is the Blaze turning into another National Enquire?

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- COFemale
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 11:11am
  Nobody is making you stay. You can leave, we won’t miss you.
  
  Report this comment
- Curtman41
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 11:50am
  @ riker01 Since you are such an expert and authority on determining what is and isn’t news, go start your own news agency. Good luck!
  
  Report this comment
- chips1
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 9:45pm
  If you set up your own news agency, are you going to pay minimum wage to read it? Will you pay into retirement? How many vacation days will I get?
  
  Report this comment
single stack
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 9:27am
I see a lot of commenters here are as contemptuous of the Constitution as the socialists.
The Article I, Section 9 prohibition of ex post facto law means we cannot be tried under laws that were passed after an act was committed. The law at the time the crime was committed forbade trying juveniles as adults. The passage of time between the crime and the trial is irrelevant.

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scrapadapolis
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 8:02am
Does anyone fail to realize that what ever age you are if you have rape and murder in your heart it doesnt matter how old someone is.These crimes are not just commited by adults.New laws should be imposed,That at any age any acts of murder,rape,use of a weapon to hurt,mane,kill.have severe and swift justice by means of death.

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- piper60
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 8:42am
  The longer between the murder and the conviction, the slower the method of death should be.
  
  Report this comment
- wayner4162
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 9:17am
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPtPN-pSuco
  
  Report this comment
chingachgook
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 7:41am
ACLU is an arm of the Marxist effort to cause as much Chaos in the United States as possible. Just about any law when pushed to it’s limit is foolish and causes problems.
That is what the ACLU is all about. Too bad.

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GUYFROMMAINE
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 7:30am
Doesn’t the ACLU guy give you that cold, sick-to-your- stomach feeling? Your telling me a 15 year old doesn’t know how bad rape and murder is? If that is the case, then I am telling you that “child” needs to be killed because he is morally bankrupt and has no regard for other humans.

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- drattastic
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 8:16am
  If it is evil the ACLU is there to protect it. How long before they are proponents for pedophiles ? Never mind they have already gone there.
  
  Report this comment
- Darla_K
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 8:33am
  Too bad the lady wasn’t armed. Maybe she could of reversed the outcome.
  
  Report this comment
- caveman74
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 11:29am
  I think they already do. I seem to recall hearing or reading somewhere that they represent NMBLA pro bono
  
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raderby
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 6:59am
well, objections all around because more of the citizen’s dollars are going to house and feed this guy for however long he is jailed.

The sentence calls for “indeterminate, not to exceed life” – hmm, a judge could order a life minus one day as his sentence. After all, since progressives know everything, they can surely predict when this guy is going to die. Just let him go the day before.

And I ask a question too, that has been asked here – what exactly has this guy been doing since ’76? Couldn’t be this guy was in prison a number of times, huh? Maybe in prison right now, on another “beef”? What if all the crimes this guy might have commented since ’76 had all the victims of crimes since ’76 sue the state of NJ for not acting sooner? Meaning, we have had DNA capabilities for many years now…… what took so long?

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- Darla_K
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 8:34am
  I suspect he was already in the system if they had access to his DNA.
  
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- Jenny Lind
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 7:43pm
  That’s what I would like to know, what has he been doing since then.
  
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NOTMOHAMMED
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 6:35am
Couldn’t be our ‘justice system’ looked the other way because he’s black, could it? …naahhh…not them. Death sentence, to be carried out immediately for all the years he roamed free while the Victim’s Family suffered,

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Apple Bite
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 5:32am
Something is fishy abotu this case, I’d like to have heard the evidence against him. Not saying he’s innocent, for those that jump to conclusions out there. But seriously, a 15 yr old raping a 57 yr old? I could see if she was 20 or so, but most teenagers aren’t lusting for an almost 60 yr old woman. If he did do this, then so it is, he should do the time. But just thinking about the age difference…that’s usually the one thing a young teen wouldn’t attempt to cross. Everyone has a line that won’t cross. For teenage males, feeling up an old woman for sex is as likely as Obama not stuttering when he’s lying.

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- brknhrt
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 6:49am
  This is more than a stupid comment Rape is not about sex, but it is about power and humiliation. Women in their 80s have been raped. Really, please crawl back under that rock you came out of.
  
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- TEXASGRANNY73
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 7:01am
  Hey Brainiac Obviously you did not read the article well or at all. First this guy was tried as a 52 yr old adult male under a 1976 law for teenagers. How hard is that for wanting more “facts”? And with dna which dne (did not exist) in the 70′s. Further, he has been found guilty and is being sentenced. The max he can receive is 20yrs according to the old law which was changed 2 years later. Regardless if he had gone to trial at that time and been found guilty he would have served 20 years or less and now be a free man on the streets. Fishy? About rape and murder? Are you serious? Those crimes are about power control and have nothing to do with age of the victim or the age of criminal. We have a justice system and justice should be served. He is now nearly the age as you called the victim-old, and clearly 20 years in prison should be lotsa fun for a seventy two year old. Hmm? More clearly it seems safe to say you will probably never be chosen for jury duty. Hope not.
  
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- Apple Bite
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 9:15am
  Young men very rarely go after women that much older than them. 15 yrs older, maybe…. But we’re talking about 15 yr old teenager and a 57 yr old woman. And no, I didn’t say it was all about sex. Read the above post again. For what reason would he have to humiliate this woman, and then kill her on top of it all? And you dare question the fact I’d like to have heard more about this case? You act as if I’m condoning the crime!
  
  Hey Granny, how many teenage boys are stalking you on a daily basis? Not too many, right? You wonder why? There no interest there. Hence the reasons why I said the following:
  
  Apple Bite
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 5:32am
  
  “Something is fishy abotu this case, I’d like to have heard the evidence against him. Not saying he’s innocent, for those that jump to conclusions out there. But seriously, a 15 yr old raping a 57 yr old?”
  
  DNA evidence can be corrupted, plenty of innocent men and later proven as such, have gone to jail over such evidence. My reasoning behind wondering more about the case is justified enough to have made the remarks here. And yes, I have served jury duty, and yes, the good guys won over a dirt bag that was cheating various businesses out of their property and money too.
  
  Bottom line here, both of you jumped to the conclusion that I’m assuming this guy is innocent, when the opposite is more than likely true.
  
  Report this comment
- individualrights1st
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 10:50am
  “Something is fishy about this case, I’d like to have heard the evidence against him.” I agree.
  
  @brknhrt
  “This is more than a stupid comment Rape is not about sex, but it is about power and humiliation.” And those type of rapists do not stop with just one so what is the rest of this man’s history. If he’s been relativity clean of sexual crimes all these years, then I would have some serious doubts about his guilt. Definitely not enough detail in this column to conclude anything.
  
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- ONLY4UANDME
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 1:40pm
  Some black men look at sex with a white woman as a feather in his cap. I doubt a 15 year old knows there is much difference in the body of a say a 30 and 50 year old female.
  
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- katzkiner
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 6:28pm
  Raping elderly white females is a national sport. Read Soul on Ice, by Eldridge Cleaver or visit the blog, Black Racism and Race Hatred of Non Blacks. It is one of several blogs that track black on white hate crimes, it will take you weeks to work through the reports that do not make the news. The blogger wrote a book “White Girl Bleed A Lot”. There’s a war on from your hide. One page will have 116 hate rape murders listed. You just don’t know.
  
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- katzkiner
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 6:35pm
  Dar spell.check, There’s war on for your hide. Nice to see you Truth!
  
  Report this comment
Chancellor
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 3:04am
Tried as a Juvie??? But for over 30 years he could have told the truth so he gets rewarded for lying….

Then the Police and Federal officials wonder why the people tell them nothing!

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Wes Hardin
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 2:55am
What kind of DNA evidence did they have after 36 years? How did this guy become a suspect and how was he tied to the crime? Was there any other evidence that links him to the victim?

It seems like a BS case to me based upon the limited amount of information presented in the article. And we know for a fact that crime lab analysts lie their behinds off to get convictions.

For the hang him high crowd please familiarize yourselves with Article 1 Section 9 of the US Constitution, specifically the third clause = No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

What that means is that legislatures can’t pass retroactive laws. The person who posed the question is either a certified idiot or else he’s trying to determine how ignorant the readers of the article are about the US Constitution. Based on some of the comments I think it was the second option. Most people don’t have a clue about what’s in the Constitution.

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TruthIsRacismVoice
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 1:24am
Hey PEG…or PAG…or whatever the name is of the brick brain who subs for Beck on radio. If there ever was a animated brain fart when it comes to understanding RACE ON RACE CRIME…it is JOE PAG … I suggest everyone GOOGLE “Color of Crime PDF” and “Fathersmanifesto” and “blackracismblackhate.blog and get informed since us WHITES have been brainwashed after the example of PAG or PEG…One arrogant STUPID man! This story is one of over 165,000 MURDERS of Whites by blacks over a 40 year period of time. SOURCE? Say FBI stats. !

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Marsh626
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 1:22am
Hooray. Another wonderful benefit of finally ending evil racial segregation. May there be many more black on Whote assaults, muggings, rapes and murders. Diversity is Strength.

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charleyrocks
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 1:07am
If he was let go because of the law at the time then he should not have to be tried all over again. You can’t change the law and bring up all the ones who were not charged years gone by, because of the american law at that time. it’s not fair to anyone. be careful what you wish for.

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- chips1
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 10:04pm
  I went back to the article twice and didn’t see where it said he was tried. It leads me to believe that DNA pointed to him recently and that he was just tried recently and his sentencing is in January. Did I screw up again?
  
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TomSawyer
Posted on December 23, 2012 at 12:43am
It is right to change the law so 15 year olds are tried as adults because rape is an adult act but they should not retroactively apply criminal laws ever. People should be tried under the laws that existed at that time they committed the crime.

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jman-6
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 11:48pm
For all those wishing for him to be charged as an adult I’d be careful what you wish for! What I mean by this is you don’t want the govt. changing rules in mid stream as you may find yourself in a situation and you don’t want to give a corrupt govt. that kind of precedent!! All it takes is one time to set a legal precedent and voila corruption run amok!!

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- SerikFox
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 12:25am
  By 15 you should most definitely understand that rape and murder is wrong. He should have been tried as an adult.
  
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- QuincySmith
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 12:55am
  jman;
  
  If you read the article, NJ law changed TWO years later (1978) allowing juveniles to be tried as adults. So you think going back 36 years is right, but 34 is wrong?
  
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- drs1969
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 1:08am
  If he can hide the crime (til adulthood), then he should do the time. He’s now 52, she’s still dead.
  
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Fla.Patriot
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:52pm
Does this mean that he will be sent to a juvenile detention facility? What B.S. The crime being what it was, I hope the Judge does some serious Judicial manuevering and lays the smack down on this guy. He had the presence of mind to Rape her before he killed her. That is not the act of a child

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edwest70
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:41pm
He’s had 36 years of prime life. It’s time to pay for this crime. And I hope there’s a prison bitch named Karma waiting for him.

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grownup
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:39pm
I have never raped and murdered anyone in my life. Not as a minor or as an adult. No one I know has ever done these crimes. We would never even think about doing these things. Quite the opposite, in fact. If we caught a person doing this we would shoot them on the spot. Why such disparity in views? I think it is because I was raised with the fear of God and my parents. This means they whupped my butt when I screwed up. And they were there for me twenty four seven. They weren’t on drugs, nor were they alcoholics. They were well educated and hard working. They didn’t feed from the public trough. They were adults and stood on their own two feet.

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rickc34
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:32pm
He was old enough to understand what he did. What he did was brutal and he should be tried as an adult.

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KangarooJack
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:25pm
As a 15yr old, he didn’t just murder her-he raped a 57yr old woman. She was terrorized THEN killed. I wonder what his record is for the rest of his life up to this point?

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- RepubliCorp
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:33pm
  he did find the cure for cancer,,,,,,,,,
  
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- jman-6
  Posted on December 22, 2012 at 11:42pm
  Republicorp- that’s just wrong!
  
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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:12pm
I hope he gets the maximum 20 year sentence.

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Psychosis
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:10pm
if obama was the son ………….would his daddy look like this ?

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RepubliCorp
Posted on December 22, 2012 at 10:00pm
Should Carlton Franklin have been tried as an adult? Did he turn himself in before he became a adult? Did he hide as a adult? Come-on

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- PistosEnAgape
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 12:18am
  I’m with you on this one. He didn’t exactly come forward, either teen or adult, admitting to this horrific crime. It was only due to advances in criminal technologies, not from any sense of personal conviction. that the investigation came to a successful end. He knew he was wrong then… and still knows it.
  
  Try him as an adult.
  
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- drs1969
  Posted on December 23, 2012 at 1:14am
  Exactly.
  The state of NJ obviously values the life of a 52 yr old black male rapist and murderer more than the life of his innocent 57 yr old white female victim. Your tax dollars at work.
  
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