Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali, who died on Wednesday aged 77, was the “hanging judge” of the Iranian revolution, responsible for sending hundreds, possibly thousands, of people to their deaths; he became notorious in the West after he appeared on television poking the charred corpses of American servicemen killed in an unsuccessful bid to rescue hostages held in the American embassy in Tehran.Khalkhali, known as “the butcher” to his compatriots, brought to his job as Chief Justice of the revolutionary courts a relish for summary execution that would have made Judge Jeffries seem like a member of the Howard League for Penal...