On this day, Nov. 30, in 1990, Californian George Franklin Jr., was convicted of first-degree murder after his daughter, Eileen Franklin Lipsker, said she had recovered a repressed memory of seeing her father kill her 8-year-old best friend in 1969. The murder of Susan Nason had gone unsolved until Lipsker, 29, told authorities that she recalled being in her father’s Volkswagen van when he picked up Nason, drove to an isolated area, and killed her friend with a rock.
Never before had a recovered memory been used in a criminal prosecution. The case fueled national debate over its reliability.
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Franklin was sentenced to life in prison. Franklin spent nearly seven years behind bars before a judge overturned his conviction. Prosecutors decided against a retrial after learning that Lipsker had falsely accused her father of a second murder.
— Scott McCabe
