The porno publisher who was shot by a serial killer who left him paralyzed 35 years ago said on Thursday that he didn't want to see the assailant put to death for the attack.
In a piece published in The Hollywood Reporter, Flynt wrote that he didn't believe in the death penalty and therefore thought that Joseph Paul Franklin shouldn't be put to rest, despite the fact that Flynt wouldn't mind taking to him with pliers and a pair of wire cutters. Franklin has been incarcerated since 1980, after a series of armed attacks that killed five people and wounded others. He's slated to be injected with lethal poison on Nov. 20 in Missouri, according to the Associated Press. He was sentenced to death after receiving a conviction for his fifth murder, and has been on death row for 15 years.
"I have every reason to be overjoyed with that decision, but I am anything but," Flynt wrote in his letter. The 70-year-old Hustler magazine publisher he doesn't think this kind of punishment will stop crime, adding that pickpockets who were hanged in eighteenth century England, people who assembled to watch public executions had valuables pilfered from their pockets.
"That's a true story, and, if you're ever trying to convince somebody of why the death penalty is not a deterrent, that's a good example," he wrote.
He also said that Franklin having to live the rest of his existence in a prison cell will be enough punishment.
Franklin testified that his killing spree was prompted by his hatred of blacks and Jews. He was never tried for the attack on Flynt but admitted he'd committed the crimes. He said he wanted to punish the publisher for releasing a photo spread that featured a black man and white woman.
Franklin attacked two interracial couples, as well as a man he saw standing outside a synagogue.
