Paul Hill
A modern parallel to Adler’s case can be seen in the actions of Paul Hill. In 1994 Paul J. Hill, a 41-year-old former Presbyterian minister with a wife and three children, was tried and convicted in both federal court and in the Tallahassee, Florida, court for the shooting deaths of a Pensacola abortion doctor, John Britton, and his bodyguard, John Barrett.
Hill, like Armstrong (see below), defended his violent actions as necessary to save lives.Hill sought to argue at both trials that the shootings were justifiable homicide preventing the greater evil of abortion. Before he killed Britton and Barrett, Hill had appeared on national television talk shows advocating the killing of abortion providers. It is important to note that although Dr. Britton was his target, Hill excused killing Barrett “because he was directly between the abortionist and me. I was actually aiming at the abortionist, but he was directly between us, so for me to shoot the abortionist and to aim and shoot at him was one and the same thing.”5 Note also that Dr. Britton is depersonalized by Hill. Hill’s comments demonstrate the moral short circuit between employing one violent act as a justification for another violent act, which, in turn, will save innocent lives, whether the unborn or, in Karl Armstrong’s case (discussed below), civilians in Vietnam. Neither the federal court nor the Florida court allowed Hill to make his justifiable homicide argument.6
After his conviction in both federal and Florida courts—with a life sentence in the federal court and a death sentence in Florida—Hill granted an interview to explain his reasoning: Hill said he believed that “God’s law positively requires us to defend helpless people. We’re supposed to help our neighbor if he’s being killed.… Of course, I still have struggles every day to walk with the Lord, but I feel like I’m much more at peace now than prior to shooting the abortionist. I honestly feel better now about myself, about life and about everything than I ever have because I know I did the right thing.” Hill said he believed in the death penalty because “I couldn’t have shot that abortionist if I didn’t.” As for martyrdom, Hill observed: “If I am in fact killed, I think you could justifiably call me a martyr. Of course, the world sneers at martyrs, but there’s no question that God has used people who are willing to die for their cause to save human life, and I’m certainly willing to do that.”7