Justice

The New York Times has an editorial about Pakistan:

There is a rare glimmer of hope from Pakistan. A court on Saturday found Malik Mumtaz Qadri guilty of the assassination of Salman Taseer, the courageous and outspoken governor of Pakistan’s Punjab Province, who was gunned down in January.
Taseer defended the rights of women and minorities. He pressed hard to repeal the country’s outrageous blasphemy law that imposes a mandatory death sentence on anyone convicted of “insulting” Islam. Qadri, who was one of the governor’s bodyguards, admitted to the killing, and said it was justified because of what he called Taseer’s “blasphemous” statements.
Qadri’s sentence of death, like all such rulings, is barbaric. There is little doubt that Taseer’s close ties to President Asif Ali Zardari and the ruling party gave the government extra incentive to bring the killer to trial.
But the fact that Judge Syed Pervez Ali Shah and the special prosecutor were willing to bring the case to a conclusion is a reminder that there are still people of courage in Pakistan. The government must protect them from retribution.
The reaction in Pakistan to the January killing was repugnant. Many people, including lawyers, cheered Qadri and showered him with rose petals at a court appearance while most of the country’s political leaders remained silent. After the ruling, some of Qadri’s supporters burned tires and denounced the sentence. Qadri is expected to appeal his conviction, so the test for Pakistan’s judicial system is far from over.
Pakistan’s leaders, and all of its people, are facing an even more profound choice: Do they want a country in which zealots like Qadri can intimidate and murder anyone who dares to disagree with them? Or do they want a country in which tolerance and justice can prevail? That was Salman Taseer’s vision for Pakistan. It must not be forgotten.

Rico says that the death sentence may be hard on the convicted, surely, but it's no more 'barbaric' than his killing of Taseer...