While I agree with this and some of your other comments Dave (I certainly disapprove of the sentence, not the verdict though), to say it's OK because Iraqi law says it is means you legitimise every judicial killing
Stigweard, show me where I said it was OK. I didn't. I said it was not murder, which is a tremendously emotional, pejorative term which tends to prevent a rational analysis.
As a matter of fact, if I were the judge who had to impose sentence, I would have had a hard time (as they perhaps did), not so much on humanitarian grounds as on the grounds that his execution may be counterproductive by making him a martyr, a red flag that can be waved around to justify anything. Some will say that's a political consideration. Yes, it is. But every judge who imposes a penalty for a crime necessarily has in mind the perception of the rest of the population.