A white Iowa woman who tried to kill two children because of their race was sentenced to 25 years in prison on hate crimes charges.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose sentenced Nicole Poole Franklin, 43, to 304 months in prison, or 25 years and four months. Poole Franklin had pleaded guilty to two federal hate crimes charges in April.
“The sentences will run concurrently to each other and concurrent to the sentence imposed in the related state court case,” the Justice Department said in a press release.
She was already sentenced to 17.5 years on state attempted murder charges for the attack.
On Dec. 9 2019, Poole Franklin intentionally jumped a curb and hit a 12-year-old black boy injuring his leg. A witness told police that Poole Franklin, who was driving a SUV “gunned its engine” before hitting the boy. She told prosecutors she thought the boy was of Middle Eastern descent and was a member of ISIS who was “not supposed to be here and he’s going to take me out.”
About an hour later she ran over a 14-year-old girl because “she is Mexican.” The girl suffered numerous injuries including a concussion and was hospitalized for several days. Poole was arrested about an hour later at a local gas station, where officers say she had thrown items at a clerk while yelling racial slurs at him and other customers.
“Nicole Poole Franklin attempted to kill two children because of the way they looked and where she believed they came from. This kind of egregious racial violence and hatred has absolutely no place in this country and will not be tolerated by the Justice Department,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s civil rights division
Joseph Herrold, Poole Franklin’s attorney argued in his sentencing memorandum that “while she understood the nature and quality of what she was doing, and knew it was morally wrong, she was also quite clearly in the midst of an extreme schizoaffective episode that was further exacerbated by methamphetamine use, post-partum depression, and the grief of losing rights to her child.”
Poole Franklin has a criminal history dating back to when she was 18 that included convictions for theft, assault and harassment, prosecutors say. She also has a history of substance abuse and mental illness.
