OT: Arizona man accused of “honor killing” daughter won’t face the death penalty. Why? Because it would look bigoted to do so:

The decision not to seek the death penalty comes after Almaleki’s attorney, Billy Little, a public defender, asked a judge to take special precautions to ensure the County Attorney’s Office wouldn’t wrongly seek the death penalty because Almaleki is a Muslim.

Little requested that the office make public the process it uses to determine whether to seek capital punishment.

“An open process provides some level of assurance that there is no appearance that a Christian is seeking to execute a Muslim for racial, political, religious or cultural beliefs,” Little wrote, referring to County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ Christian faith.

Laura Reckart, a county prosecutor, responded that Little’s concern about the “supposed bias” of the office’s death-penalty-review process was “without legitimate factual or legal basis.”

She wrote that the state can seek the death penalty for any person convicted of first-degree murder if it can prove the existence of at least one aggravating factor, not because of religion.

However, the debate stopped there. On Tuesday, Reckart filed a motion indicating prosecutors would not seek the death penalty.