Larry Flynt on Shooter: “I Don’t Want to Kill Him”

While some people would want nothing more than to see the person who made an attempt on their life die, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt feels quite differently. Flynt has spoken out about the pending de...
Larry Flynt on Shooter: “I Don’t Want to Kill Him”
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  • While some people would want nothing more than to see the person who made an attempt on their life die, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt feels quite differently.

    Flynt has spoken out about the pending death of the man who shot and paralyzed him from the waist down in 1978. Flynt wrote about the assassination attempt and his shooter’s upcoming lethal injection in a guest column, and it is quite clear that Flynt does not want the shooter, Joseph Paul Franklin, to die.

    While Flynt speaks out against the death penalty, he does say that he would like an hour by himself with Franklin. Read part of Larry Flynt’s column from The Hollywood Reporter:

    In all the years since the shooting, I have never come face-to-face with Franklin. I would love an hour in a room with him and a pair of wire-cutters and pliers, so I could inflict the same damage on him that he inflicted on me. But, I do not want to kill him, nor do I want to see him die.

    As far as the severity of punishment is concerned, to me, a life spent in a 3-by-6-foot cell is far harsher than the quick release of a lethal injection. And costs to the taxpayer? Execution has been proven to be far more expensive for the state than a conviction of life without parole, due to the long and complex judicial process required for capital cases.

    Joseph Paul Franklin, whose death sentence is scheduled to be carried out on November 20 at Potosi Correctional Center in Missouri, admitted to shooting Flynt after being arrested for other crimes. The attempt on Flynt’s life was hardly the only violent crime Franklin has confessed to committing.

    Franklin has been convicted of six murders, but confessed to eight, and the Mobile, Alabama man is suspected to be involved in up to 20 murders. Franklin went on a murder spree from 1976 to 1980 (the year he was arrested) in an effort to “cleanse the world” of people he considered inferior. Franklin was involved in a number of hate crimes, including shooting civil rights activist Vernon Jordan and fire-bombing multiple synagogues.

    After Franklin was arrested, he told investigators of plans he had to try to kill President Jimmy Carter and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, plus he admitted to trying to kill Flynt and others. The reason Franklin gave for trying to kill Flynt was because his magazine displayed images of interracial sex.

    After Larry Flynt’s column was published, he also posted his thoughts concerning Franklin’s upcoming death on Twitter.

    [Image via Twitter]

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