I suspect quite a few sites which covered this story won’t also be covering Judge Mark Martin’s letter in which he explains that he is a Lutheran, and not a Muslim. To be fair, the judge does seem to be saying that he is a Muslim in an audio recording of the trial. But it seems certain either that he misspoke, made that assertion in an ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ spirit – or else that there is a problem with the recording. His religious identity doesn’t make any difference to his judgement, and the way he framed it (bad) – but it’s worth noting the way in which these stories get souped up to no very useful purpose.
