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A US JUDGE has granted a last-minute stay of execution to a white supremacist serial killer, questioning the drug that was to be used to put him to death.
Joseph Paul Franklin, who shot porn mogul Larry Flynt in 1978 and left him paralysed, had been scheduled for execution late on Tuesday night over the killing of another man.
But US District Judge Nanette Laughrey in the central state of Missouri granted the stay, CNN and other news outlets said.
She said Missouri’s use of pentobarbital carried a high risk of “unnecessary pain beyond that which is required to achieve death.”
She wrote:
Given the irreversible nature of the death penalty and plaintiffs’ medical evidence and allegations, a stay is necessary to ensure that the defendants’ last act against Franklin is not permanent, irremediable cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
CNN said a second federal judge, Carol Jackson, granted a separate stay on grounds that Franklin was not mentally competent.
The state has appealed both stays and defense attorney Jennifer Herndon told CNN she expected the appeals court to rule within the next day.
Killings
Larry Flynt (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Franklin, described as being motivated by racism, was due to be executed over the killing of Gerald Gordon outside a synagogue in St Louis, Missouri in 1977.
CNN said Franklin is blamed for 22 killings between 1977 and 1980.
Flynt was shot by Franklin in 1978 outside a Georgia courthouse, where Flynt was fighting obscenity charges. But Franklin was never tried in that case.
Flynt, now 70 and wheelchair-bound because of the shooting, wrote last month that he would like to “inflict damage” on Franklin but did not want to see him die.
“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,” Flynt wrote in an opinion column in The Hollywood Reporter.
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They get a nice pension for that little stint. New passengers for the gravy train all aboard.
Sean
You bring envy to a new pitch completely. Government is made up of parts in much the same way as large organisations such as businesses. Is it so completely unacceptable that a Management team would assist in the running of a State and that we democratically elect those who will ultimately be appointed to that Team.
This mirrors the behaviour of every other democratic State as far as I understand and the people don’t behave like contributors to the Journal with a whinge or a moan or a piece of negativity at every hands turn.
Sean would you for Gods sake……grow up …..you’re as a bad as a country singer moanfest!
‘grow up’ is a common bit of advice on here….
Yes Will
Followed – or preceded – by ‘for gods sake’
More meaningless drivel
There is no need for many of these junior ministers. It really is a gravy train that keeps backbenchers happy and plays to constituency voters and party members. Rather than making personal attacks you could explain what contributions most of these appointments make to governance and progress. They are overheads that contribute little.
Rodgers as usual spouting tripe.
Richard ( Dick)
I am all too grown up that is why I can see the wood from the trees. These junior ministries were introduced under the Haughey era to give disappointed TDs a “job” who did not make it into cabinet. They certainly were not another level of management to assist cabinet . Far from being envious of these politicans . It is just plain anger that I feel for having to pay for their office out of my taxes.
Paul
I run a very substantial business with many hundreds of employees and contractors. I fully recognise that it would be impossible to do that without an appropriate Management Team across every level of the Organisation. We don’t have an Army Council or a Dear Leader as you would understand it. That wouldn’t function Paul in modern times. Of course in your Party which behaves so much like the politics of Cuba or North Korea where your friends impose their management style with imprisonment torture and execution you probably see that as acceptable!
Your one line nastiness is highly intelligent and reflective of your Sinn Fein allegiance.
Richard, you’re confusing a decent structure with decent incumbents. A high powered business such as yourself should know the difference.
John Perry will have to do out another SFS for the banks ..
John was in the right place at the right time
I wonder are any of these JUNIORS on job bridge!!!!!!!
any of these JUNIORS on job bridge…..no…all on the gravy train
If you put Coffey out for the rob, you’d get no takers. Worse than useless.
Good to bring in some new faces. Simon Harris has done well in the PAC hearings.
Taking Hayes’s job was the reward for running in the euro elections.
(And doing better than expected in them).
After seeing him snearing and sniding his way through the euro debates I dislike him even more
Harris is impressive, and I hope he can bring some fresh thinking to the Department. I fear, however, that he’s going to end up as a fireman when the truth about the banks emerges.
He may be good on paper, but he comes across as too much of a teacher’s pet for the Irish electorate to warm to him significantly.
He lacks the ‘man’s man’ macho charm and charisma of O’Snodaigh, Toibin and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.
What are his credential other than being young? Does he have a background in finance? Does he have a university degree? Has he ever held a job in the private sector? Finance?!?
Most of these Junior / Juvenile clowns will be redundant after next Election . Money wasting political farce.
Simon Harris is a young Mr Burns
I can hardly wait to see Enda’s new team!
I’d be ashamed if I was only getting promoted to try halt the rise of sinn rein, that is until I see the payment I’ll receive for playing my part in the charade that is democracy in Ireland!!
All that a reshuffel means is we will all have to listen to a different strain of verbal diorrhea.
Happy to see Simon Harris was elevated. He seems to actually be bright, unlike most junior ministerial hopefuls — ex-PD opportunist Mary Mitchell-O’Connor, for example.
Bright. Like a lighthouse in a bog. Bright but useless!
What happened Fergus O’Dowd?
He’s been dropped apparently. Right decision – he’s not an effective Minister at all in my view.
Anybody know why we have a reshuffle at same time as they do at Westminster?
One a side issue what do the lads here think of Esther mcvey the Tory minister promoted today? My god she is a stunner we could do with a replacement for Mary Harvey ;)
Ding Dong
Because we had local elections at the same time as the UK too.
She’s ok looking, but exactly a MILF by anyone’s standards
*not exactly
Check her pics out online I tell u she is a god :)
Sorry to see Ciaran Cannon dropped from Education.
He was a real advocate for IT in education; such forward-thinking is regrettably rare within this government.
It’s all well and good in the summer giving that chap the junior finance role. But once the school year begins again will he be able to juggle it with his Leaving Cert?
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