Contact: Beth Stone 508-584-8120
NATICK – The state Parole Board has granted parole to a man convicted of First-Degree Murder in connection with a 2004 fatal shooting in Brockton, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has announced.
In a Parole Board decision dated March 24, our office was notified that 39-year-old Lewis Franklin is set to be released to a state Department of Mental Health Group Living Environment 45 days after the date of decision. DA Cruz submitted a letter in opposition of Franklin’s release at the December 18, 2025 parole board hearing.
On August 23, 2004, a then 18-year-old Franklin shot and killed John Falcone, after an argument between the two over a narcotics transaction. Franklin fired four shots at the fleeing Falcone, and he was struck once in the back, killing him.
Franklin was convicted of First-Degree Murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole following a jury trial in October, 2009. However, in 2024, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held in Commonwealth v. Mattis that a sentence of life without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional as applied to “emerging adults” between the ages of 18 and 20. As a result of this decision, Franklin became eligible for a parole hearing.
In his letter of opposition to the state Parole Board, DA Cruz noted that Franklin received 19 disciplinary reports spanning his entire tenure in prison. “Furthermore, the fact that the defendant only started to participate in institutional programming after the Mattis decision undercuts that he is ready for parole,” DA Cruz wrote. “That he failed to participate in programming prior to this suggests that he lacks the intrinsic motivation to better himself or learn through programming. Rather, he is extrinsically motivated, he is participating in programming as a means to an end, to strengthen his case before this Board.”
In their unanimous decision to release Franklin, the Parole Board stated, “Mr. Franklin has a strong support system that is equipped to assist him in complying with his own release plan and mental health needs. With structure and the appropriate supports in place, the Board concludes that Mr. Franklin’s release is compatible with the welfare of society.”