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The Case of Kwame Ajamu
📻 Episode #369
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Jun 22, 2023
About This Episode
On May 19, 1975, Harold Franks was confronted by two men as he left a grocery store in Cleveland, OH. The men demanded Franks’ briefcase and, when he resisted, hit him with a pipe and splashed acid in his face. One robber then started shooting – killing Franks and injuring Ann Robinson, co-owner of the…
Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.
The Case
On May 19, 1975, Harold Franks was confronted by two men as he left a grocery store in Cleveland, OH. The men demanded Franks’ briefcase and, when he resisted, hit him with a pipe and splashed acid in his face. One robber then started shooting – killing Franks and injuring Ann Robinson, co-owner of the store. The perpetrators then fled in a getaway car with Franks’ briefcase. Authorities soon obtained a witness statement from 12-year-old Eddie Vernon, who said that the perpetrators were 18-year-old Ricky Jackson and Ricky’s friends, brothers, 17-year-old Ronnie Bridgeman (now known as Kwame Ajamu) and 20-year-old Wiley Bridgeman. Even though Eddie recanted his statements, authorities forced him to testify. Based solely on this child’s coerced testimony, Kwame was convicted and sentenced to death. Jason talks to Kwame Ajamu and Terry Gilbert, Kwame's attorney.
https://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/
https://otse.org/
https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/7645a58de31e642eee4d46b0027f4b21/lovely-jackson-no-password
https://www.amazon.com/Trying-Times-Terry-Gilbert/dp/1733179526
https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/257-jason-flom-with-rickey-jackson/
In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:04:48“Speaker 3: come up in the apthampa that actually because I was Speaker 3: seventeen years old in nineteen seventy five, when all of Speaker 3: this happened to me. Speaker 1: So you're still really a kid, You're a teenager, and Speaker 1: I'm sure where you had dreams and aspirations like every”
00:18:24“Speaker 1: Policy Center, a nonprofit law firm that seeks justice for Speaker 1: people to directly impact it by Ohio's criminal legal system. Speaker 1: OJPC provides free legal services to currently and formally incarcerated people. Speaker 1: Through its Beyond Guilt Project, OJPC works to free, over Speaker 1: punish people who have rehabilitated themselves. Ojpc's Second Chance clinics”
00:31:46“Speaker 3: much time. When I got out of prison again parole, Speaker 3: I had an eleven year run, no matter how fucked Speaker 3: up it was, I still had an eleven year life Speaker 3: without them, And to this day I feel kind of Speaker 3: bad about that. You know, had I had a wife”
Listen to the Episode
🎧 Listen on Omny / the podcast's platforms
🎧 Full episode page — Lava for Good
Resources & links from the episode:
- www.witnesstoinnocence.org
- otse.org
- therokuchannel.roku.com
- www.amazon.com
- lavaforgood.com
- omnystudio.com
Share this case, follow the organisations working on it, and support the podcast's fight for the innocent at lavaforgood.com.
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