HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- A Huntsville man who killed his parents and tried to kill three siblings in 1998 wants his parole hearing moved up to this year, according to a letter he sent to the judge in the case.

Jeffrey Franklin, who was 17 at the time of the brutal March 1998 attack, is currently housed at the Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer. He pleaded guilty in 2001 to two murder charges and three counts of attempted murder.

A hatchet, a two-pound sledgehammer, a rat-tail file and a butcher's knife, were all used in the crime, said Madison County District County Rob Broussard, who prosecuted Franklin.

He was charged in the deaths of his parents, Gerald and Cynthia Franklin, and the attacks on two younger brothers and a younger sister on March 10, 1998 at the family's home on Camelot Drive in southeast Huntsville. Another sister was not home at the time.

In a hearing after Franklin's arrest, an investigator testified that Franklin admitted to being at the home but not to the attacks. Franklin said it was like some "evil being" with horns sticking out of his head and eyes had taken over his body, the investigator said. Franklin told investigators he had been taking prescription drugs and had not slept for two days before the attack.

Now-retired Circuit Judge Loyd Little sentenced Franklin to three life sentences to be served consecutively.

Under Alabama law, a person who receives a life sentence is eligible for a parole hearing after 15 years in prison. But Franklin argues in the letter he sent Little last March that the judge gave him credit toward his sentence for the three years and three months he was in custody before his guilty plea.

Court records indicate Franklin did get that credit, in a document from 2001 signed by Madison County Circuit Clerk Jane Smith.

Little said today he doesn't recall any information relevant to Franklin's arguments.

In his letter, Franklin said that he willingly pleaded guilty but also has mitigating circumstances related to his abuse of prescription drugs.

Franklin recounts facing discipline on several occasions for "cutting my wrists open" and diving headfirst onto the concrete "a few times."

He describes a fight with a much larger inmate that left him badly injured and he offers a postscript at the letter's end.

"I'm not really a bad man," Franklin writes. "I didn't mean to do what I did. It just happened. I have a hard time."

Eddie Cook, the assistant executive director of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, said today Franklin has a parole hearing scheduled for June 2016. Cook said there is no indication in their records of an earlier "admittance date." The board's records show Franklin entering the corrections system on June 22, 2001, the date of his sentencing.

Cook said there is nothing in Franklin's file that indicates a request consideration for an earlier parole hearing date.

Cook also sought to clear up apparent confusion in Franklin's current corrections records. They indicate that his "parole decision" has been "granted" and his status is to be in the penitentiary pending a parole plan.

Cook said that reflects a "typo" not the granting of any parole for the double-murderer.

Cook went on to say that Franklin's case involves the notification of victims and his hearing date will likely take a few additional months before it occurs. Cook said he expects Franklin's hearing date would be in November or December of 2016.

Broussard doesn't think much of Franklin's chances of winning parole.

"Number one, if you have three consecutive life sentences, I would think he's not eligible for a serious look to parole unless he's done three consecutive life sentences, 45 years, Broussard said. "I think when you look at the nature of the crime, him killing his parents in the way he killed them. And on top of that, an individual who tried to kill his three siblings, including a six-year-old with a butcher knife, this guy will always be inherently dangerous and I feel confident that a parole board will not let him see the light of day.

"He is not one of these guys who ended up killing somebody because of the heat of the moment, this was a meticulously planned event. Just by the grace of God his brothers and sister survived."

Al.com writer Kent Faulk contributed to this story.