Larry Flynt: Do Not Execute the Man Who Shot Me

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—Hustler founder and publisher Larry Flynt has penned an essay for The Hollywood Reporter that argues against executing Joseph Paul Franklin, the man who shot and paralyzed him from the waist down in 1978. “As I stood on the steps of the Georgia courthouse where I was fighting obscenity charges, a series of gunshots rang out,” writes Flynt. “I remember nothing that happened after that until I woke up in the intensive care unit. The damage to my central nervous system was severe, and it took several weeks before doctors could stabilize me. From then on, I was paralyzed from the waist down, and have been confined to a wheelchair ever since.” Franklin, who committed several other heinous crimes in a nationwide spree that included bombing synagogues, shooting Vernon Jordan Jr., and shooting and killing an interracial couple—the crime for which he was finally caught—had targeted Flynt “because of a photo spread I ran in Hustler magazine featuring a black man and a white woman.” Flynt states, “I think somebody had to have been financing him, but nothing ever turned up on who that somebody may have been. “In all the years since the shooting,” he adds, “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.” Stating that the death penalty "is not a deterrent," Flynt argues that “a life spent in a 3-by-6-foot cell is far harsher than the quick release of a lethal injection,” and that “the long and complex judicial process required for capital cases” makes life in prison less expensive than execution. “I have every reason to be overjoyed with this decision, but I am not,” he concludes. “I have had many years in this wheelchair to think about this very topic. As I see it, the sole motivating factor behind the death penalty is vengeance, not justice, and I firmly believe that a government that forbids killing among its citizens should not be in the business of killing people itself.”