Title: Franklin v. State

State: delaware

Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court

Document:

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
 
JOHN M. FRANKLIN, 
 
Defendant Below- 
Appellant, 
 
v. 
 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
 
Plaintiff Below- 
Appellee. 
§ 
§  No. 206, 2016 
§ 
§ 
§ 
§  Court Below—Superior Court 
§  of the State of Delaware 
§   
§  Cr. ID No. 0304010407C 
§ 
§ 
 
 
 
 
 
Submitted: May 6, 2016 
 
 
 
 
Decided: 
May 23, 2016 
 
Before STRINE, Chief Justice; VAUGHN, and SEITZ, Justices. 
 
ORDER 
 
 
This 23rd day of May 2016, after careful consideration of the 
appellant’s opening brief, the State’s motion to affirm, and the record on 
appeal, the Court concludes that the March 29, 2016 letter order of the 
Superior Court summarily dismissing the appellant’s motion for 
postconviction relief should be affirmed.  The motion was subject to 
summary dismissal because it was the appellant’s fifth motion for 
postconviction relief following his 2004 convictions, and the appellant failed 
to plead with particularity the existence of new evidence that created a 
 
2
strong inference of his actual innocence or a new rule of constitutional law 
that was retroactively applicable.1   
 
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the 
Superior Court is AFFIRMED. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BY THE COURT: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
/s/ Collins J. Seitz, Jr. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Justice 
                                                 
1 Super. Ct. Crim. R. 61(d)(2), (i)(2) (effective June 4, 2014) (providing that a second or 
subsequent motion for postconviction relief shall be summarily dismissed unless the 
movant was convicted after trial and pleads with particularity a claim that the movant is 
actually innocent or a claim that a new rule of constitutional law is retroactively 
applicable and renders the conviction invalid).