Capital Punishment Returns to Iraq

When Saddam heard about this today he was overheard saying, "DOH!" This will give Amnesty International heartburn but justice will be taking place soon for the untold number of victims brutalized by the former regime. Hanging will be the method of execution:

Three men convicted of murder, rape and kidnapping sat before the judge, awaiting their fates. But first they had to face their victims' seething families.

"They broke his arms. They broke his legs. They took out his eyeballs," one woman said at the hearing Sunday in the city of Kut southeast of Baghdad, describing what the men had done to her son. "Death penalty. I want the death penalty."

A man in the back of the crowded courtroom held a sign that said: "We do not accept any sentence less than death."

Moments later, the spectators got their wish. The three alleged members of the insurgent group known as the Ansar al-Sunna Army were condemned to be hanged "in the next 10 days," according to the sentence imposed by the special criminal court.