By Alabama Public Radio
Atlanta, GA – A federal appeals court has rejected the latest appeal of an Alabama death row inmate. The Atlanta-based 11th U-S Circuit Court of Appeals turned down the appeal of John Peoples Junior Tuesday. Peoples is on his second round of appeals through the court system. The appeals court rejected claims that his conviction should be overturned for various reasons, including that his original arrest was illegal and that his attorneys were ineffective. Peoples was sentenced to die for the 1983 murders of three members of a Saint Clair County family...Paul and Judy Franklin and their 10-year-old son, Paul Franklin Junior. Court records say the bodies of the Franklins were found in a wooded area in Talladega County, a week after they disappeared from their home. They apparently died after being struck in the head with a rifle or other object. Prosecutors charged that Peoples killed them after Paul Franklin refused to sell him a car.