ST. LOUIS, Missouri—Oral arguments are being heard today by a panel of judges from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case originally filed in early November 2013 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri on behalf of Hustler founder and publisher Larry Flynt, who wanted to force the state to reveal the method of execution it planned to use later that month to kill Joseph Paul Franklin, the serial killer who shot and paralyzed him in 1978.
Judges William Jay Riley, C. Arlen Beam and Steven M. Colloton in Division I will hear arguments today from both the ACLU of Missouri and officials from the Missouri Department of Corrections.
As AVN reported in 2013, "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."
Flynt was quoted as saying at the time, “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.”
After a federal district court judge denied his attempt to intervene prior to Franklin's execution, the inveterate free speech advocate decided to continue his quest for transparency in the method of killing used by the state, and appealed the ruling, setting the stage for today's oral arguments, the amount of time for which "has been increased to 20 minutes per side," according to court records.
Previous to Franklin's execution, Flynt had been consistent in his argument that his attacker not be put to death, even writing in October 2013, "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.”
