Does anyone besides me find the circus that surrounds US executions a bit distasteful? Is it necessary for instance to parade the condemned at press conferences? I would have thought that, in terms of pandering to the ghoulish in our natures, this was about one step better than full-blown public executions a la Saudi Arabia etc.

I realise that an audience of sorts is accommodated at US executions. A Death Row lawyer on UK tv the other night recalled a recent "performance" at which the official pronouncement of death was greeted with laughter from the victim's relatives. One wonders how long such relatives manage to trip out on such an experience. As the lawyer said, they probably wake up next morning and find that the world hasn't changed much after all.

Paul Hill seems to pose the US a real quandary, being a fundamentalist Christian of some sort, convinced that the state of Florida is speeding his passage to heaven. This is exactly the mentality that fills so many in the west with dread, particularly in the states, when it comes packaged with Islamic fundamentalism. When will America wake up to the reality that this kind of madness is a pestilence whatever religion it comes with?

In the meantime, executing people like Paul Hill seems like a shabby cop-out to me. He might have lived to regret his hideous crime and shake off the nonsense he's been brainwashed into believing. And even if his death means momentary gratification for relatives, the law should not be steered by the gut feelings of people who are emotionally vulnerable.

If what he did is sanctioned by the codes of his church, then I would have thought that his church should be put on trial. And that should hold regardless of whether abortion is right or wrong (on which matter I'm afraid I continue to vacillate).