The Miami Herald | 08/20/2003 | Threats, bullets sent to protest pending execution: Three death-threat letters containing bullets were sent to Florida's attorney general and two prison officials in protest of the pending execution of anti-abortion activist Paul Hill. The missives arrived Monday as death-penalty opponents urged Gov. Jeb Bush to cancel the lethal injection execution scheduled for Sept. 3. They warn that Hill's death has the potential of turning him into a martyr to extreme anti-abortion groups.
My, what an ... interesting unification of opinion. So many people are united in wanting to spare Mr Hill from execution for such dramatically different reasons.
Mind, I'm not sure that creating a "martyr" to the cause would make all that much difference. The people who feel that they're justified in committing murder to prevent abortions aren't likely to be dissuaded from that viewpoint if Hill isn't executed. Frankly, it would seem they'd be encouraged either way; either you execute the guy and create a martyr, thus emboldening them to go on another murderous rampage ... or you decline to execute him, establishing the precedent that the state can be intimidated, and encouraging them to go on another murderous rampage because they know full well they won't be executed. No matter how you look at it, and assuming that they are in fact prepared to commit murder either in retaliation or celebration, the state loses. Whatever your opinions on either abortion or execution, surely it isn't in the state's interest to show itself to be amenable to either threats or extortionate behavior.
Posted by iain at August 20, 2003 03:47 PMComments
Just because it needs to be said every time some lowlife idiot decides killing to stop abortionists is ok, I'll say this. Abortion is wrong, murder in fact. But killing abortionists is also wrong and has been, is, and always will be condemned by the vast majority of the pro-life movement.
Moderates have a responsibility to reign in extremists. In the case of Paul Hill we failed and it is a badge of shame that we failed.
This sort of responsibility is laid onto the moderates of any group. I'm proud that the pro-life side mostly gets it right. I wish that the other side in the abortion wars would be as careful about condemning their own extremists.
Posted by TM Lutas at August 28, 2003 02:09 AM
