Larry Flynt decries planned execution of shooter

(UPI) -- If anyone would be happy to see convicted murderer Joseph Paul Franklin executed next month, it would be Larry Flynt, the "Hustler" publisher who was shot and paralyzed by Franklin in 1978.

But he isn't.

"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," Flynt wrote in a column for the Hollywood Reporter. "But, I do not want to kill him, nor do I want to see him die."

Franklin shot Flynt outside a Georgia court, later claiming he targeted Flynt for a photo spread in "Hustler" featuring a black man and a white woman. Among his crimes are the bombings of several synagogues, the murder of an interracial couple and the shooting of civil rights activist Vernon Jordan Jr.

All told, Franklin has been convicted of eight racially motivated murders between 1977 and 1980, and has been implicated in 13 others.

"He hated blacks, he hated Jews, he hated all minorities," Flynt wrote. And now, he is scheduled to die by lethal injection on November 20.

"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," Flynt said, arguing against the execution.

"I have every reason to be overjoyed with this decision, but I am not," he went on. "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."