ACLU Files Motion for Larry Flynt in Franklin Execution Case

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.—As AVN has previously reported, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt is on record expressing his wish that serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, the man who shot and paralyzed him in 1978, not be executed on November 20, but be allowed to spend the rest of his life in prison. Flynt is now taking concrete action by intervening in a lawsuit filed against the Missouri Department of Corrections over its planned use of the barbiturate pentobarbital, which the state now intends to use in lethal injections, including for the first time with Franklin. This weekend, Tony Rothert, legal director for ACLU of Missouri, filed a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of Flynt According to the Missouri Times,"Franklin’s execution and the scheduled executions of several other convicted killers are marred in a debate in Missouri and other states about how to go about carrying out death sentence convictions in light of recent changes to the supply and availability of commonly-used execution drugs. "After unsuccessfully attempting to use the common anesthetic propofol to execute criminals," the article continued, "Missouri’s Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon directed the department to find a new solution. But when the Department announced its change and a new drug, it also announced new protocol for those involved in executions. A broader definition of what constitutes an 'execution team,' has barred the public from knowing the identity of the company supplying Missouri’s drug, or the name of the executioner and anesthesiologist that approved the new method." Flynt's motion seeks to compel the DOC to unseal documents and testimony related to the manner in which the state intends to carry out Franklin's execution, which if it is carried out as planned will mark the first time pentobarbital, which is normally used to euthanize domestic animals, is used by the state to execute a human.  In a press release issued today by the Missouri ACLU, Flynt is quoted as saying, “I find it totally absurd that a government that forbids killing is allowed to use that same crime as punishment. But, until the death penalty is abolished, the public has a right to know the details about how the state plans to execute people on its behalf.” More information about the case can be found here.