In 2003 there were 3000 people on death row in America.

Many protested their innocence and some (up to 3 per cent) are believed to have been the victims of miscarriages of justice.

In fact 10 wrongfully convicted defendants were released from death row in 2003.

Paul Hill (above) was not among them. He was proud to have murdered Florida abortion clinic doctor John Britton and his bodyguard, James Barrett in cold blood (He also wounded Barrett’s wife, June).

Following his arrest and up to his execution Hill, a former presbyterian minister, urged fellow anti-abortion activists: “I think more people should act as I have acted.”

He said God had made him do it.

He also waived all his rights to appeal to commute his sentence and accepted his fate.

So, why did Gay Mitchell and Fine Gael choose to intervene to help Paul Hill (a man who evidently supported the concept of a death penalty) when there were many more deserving cases on death row to plead for clemency in 2003.

Lines close at 5.30pm.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6sm1HZJiVk

 

You probably remain a little spooked by the extremely chilling performance by Ian Beattie (above) as the paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

Other less convincing lookalikes in Brendan Smyth: Betrayal of Trust, – but also providing the stuff of nightmares – included:

Gerry O’Brien as Albert Reynolds
Peter Hanly as Dick Spring
Jonathan Ryan as Proinsias De Rossa
Karl O’Neil as Clive Sinclair Harry Whelehan
Billy Clarke as Cardinal Daly
Stephen Kelly as Fr. Sean (now Cardinal) Brady getting two of Smith’s victims to sign ‘confidentiality agreements’ in 1975.

 

Watch Brendan Smyth: Betrayal of Trust here.

Brendan Smyth: Betrayal Of Trust (IMDB)
Who is Harry Whelehan?

Avatar Portrait by web developer Kent Brewster lets you enter your Twitter nickname and have the HTML5 Canvas script extrapolate your tiny avatar into an impressionistic style portrait.

Yes, the Broadsheet one is crap, isn’t it?

Get your impressionistic render on here.

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