A Murderer Is Not A Martyr

Today, at 6 pm, the State of Florida carried out the execution of Paul Hill, a convicted - and confessed - double murderer.

Hill declared himself in the days leading up to his death to be a martyr. Death penalty opponents pleaded with Gov. Bush to halt his execution by making the same claim.

Hill was unrepentant to the end:

"If you believe abortion is a lethal force, you should oppose the force and do what you have to do to stop it," Hill said as he lay strapped to the gurney in the execution chamber. "May God help you to protect the unborn as you would want to be protected."

Now it is not my goal to debate the propriety or impropriety of abortion in America. It is not my goal to debate the propriety or impropriety of the death penalty in America.

I do, however, want to take exception with the claim that, somehow, Paul Hill is a martyr.

Paul Hill is not a martyr. He is a murderer. He directly and deliberately took the lives of two men, not as an act of self-defense, but as a premeditated act of hatred.

Paul Hill hated abortion. He hated abortion doctors. And his hatred led him to buy a shotgun and to take it upon himself to act as judge, jury and executioner because he so hated the profession that these two men had chosen.

And for taking the law into his own hands, for his vigilantism, a true judge and jury sentenced him, as permitted under Florida law and as they have hundreds of others, to die for his crime.

Paul Hill was not above the state, yet he acted as though he was. His double murder was an absolute and inexcusable usurpation of the State's responsibilities to enforce the laws as they are decided by the population of the State.

Today, for his crime - not for his belief, his anti-abortion position, or for anything other than his crime - Paul Hill met Florida's legal executioner.

Like it or not, Mr. Hill committed a grand and elaborate form of suicide. He took actions that he knew could, and likely would, lead to his death. When he aimed that shotgun and pulled the trigger, he not only caused the immediate death of his target, he began the process that led to his own death.

In this respect, Mr. Hill wasn't much different from a Hamas bomber who blows himself up at a checkpoint and kills two Israeli soldiers. His intent, like that of the Hamas bomber, was to create an atmosphere of terror. He wanted to scare abortion doctors out of their offices, much like Hamas wants to scare Israelis out of the settlements. And he was about as effective.

No, Mr. Hill was not a martyr. He wasn't persecuted for his beliefs. He wasn't executed for being a pious man.

No, he was a terrorist. He was a murderer. He was a sickening example of extremism gone too far in America.

Paul Hill may have acted for religious reasons, but he was executed for his crime.

A murderer is not, and never will be, a martyr.