A MURDER IN JORDAN: “A prominent and outspoken Jordanian writer (Nahed Hattar) on Sunday was shot dead in front of the courthouse where he had been on trial for sharing a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam.”

Hattar’s murderer was arrested, immediately. The government called it a heinous crime — which it is. However, the government was prosecuting the author for putting a cartoon on Facebook. The cartoon as described in the AP report:

“The caricature depicted a bearded man in heaven, smoking and in bed with two women, asking God to bring him wine and cashews. Relatives said the cartoon was meant to illustrate what Hattar viewed as the twisted religious views of Islamic State extremists. The post was quickly deleted after many angry responses.”

Islamist fanatics called for Hattar’s death. Hattar’s family notes that the government did not respond to the fanatics’ explicit on-line death threats.

How should his murderer be punished?

Read the entire report.