Commentary for KQED "Perspectives"

Lawsuit Against Paladin Press Over Hit Man

by Marty Kassman

(Aired September 5, 1996)

Remember when a neo-Nazi group wanted to march in Skokie, Illinois, about 20 years ago? I grew up in Skokie, and my father, like many Skokie residents, survived a Nazi death camp. My parents' former business partner, also a Holocaust survivor, was a leading voice against letting the Nazis march. When someone mentioned the "marketplace of ideas," she answered, "What do you want to sell in the marketplace? What idea? The idea of murder?"⁽¹⁾

That came to mind recently when I was thinking about a book publisher in Colorado that's being sued for wrongful death.⁽²⁾ In 1983, Paladin Press published a book called Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors. Nine years later, someone named James Perry bought a copy. Then he murdered three people for pay. He says he followed instructions in Hit Man, such as shooting victims between the eyes. Now the victims' relatives claim Paladin Press is responsible for the murders.

I won't shed any tears for Paladin if it loses, but I hope it doesn't. In my opinion, this case is similar to the suit against a record company by the family of a murdered policeman whose killer had been listening to a rap song called "Cop Killer." And it's similar to the suit against the rock group Judas Priest by the family of a boy who shot himself, supposedly inspired by a record. Even assuming that in each case the shooting was inspired by the recording or book in question, the artist was conveying a point of view to the general public, not urging violence by a specific person or against a specific person.

We shouldn't punish authors because their controversial ideas have inspired sick or evil acts by others. Books, records, TV programs, movies, and web pages -- they don't kill people. Neo-Nazis just marching down the street don't kill people. They communicate. Sometimes what they communicate is vile and hurtful and beyond the bounds of decency; but that's why we have the First Amendment: to protect the speech we hate. With a Perspective, I'm Marty Kassman.

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1. Lockhart, Kamisar, Choper & Shiffrin, Constitutional Law 765 (6th ed. 1986), quoting Erna Gans.

2. Rice v. Paladin Press (D.Md.) (Dock. No. AW-95-3811).

© Martin Kassman 1996