oh wtff bbq? I would be scared of the bullet bouncing back and hitting me!
I dunno I'm not too comfortable with this. I'll bring in Islam because Yemen is considered a Muslim country.
Islamically, what he genuinely repented for his sins and mended his ways? In the Quran, one can ascribe partners to God or deny God (ie: commit the gravest sin possible), yet still be entirely forgiven by God (as - the Quran says over and over, god is the most merciful, the most gracious) if they sincerely repent in their hearts (don't need to quote a passage from the Quran because its literally repeated over and over). If holding multiple partners to God or denying God, which is established as the gravest offense, can be forgiven by God, then surely something like this can also be forgiven by God.
If it sounds hard to believe - denying God appears to concern a matter of spirituality while this is a matter of physical life (ie: dead child). However, one would do well to take a look at some of the hadith: remember that the uncle of Prophet Muhammed, Hamza, was killed by Wah-shee, a slave who was promised freedom by his owners if he killed Hamza, in the Battle of Uhud. Later, Wah-shee showed up in front of the Prophet reciting the Sha-ha-dah (decleration of faith in Islam). Was he killed? Nope. Instead, he was exhorted by the prophet to make amends for what he had done. He went on to have an important role.
Moral of the story? If you commit a sin, you can cancel it out by committing good acts. Another key piece of information is that even killing others can be forgiven by other humans if one is sincere and Prophet Mohammed, although not happy as he told Wah-shee to not show his face in front of him, was able to accept the situation.
So I have a problem with this punishment unless he refused to repent for his actions. That doesn't mean that one can commit sins and then 'repent' for shits and giggles. I would think that a repeat offense builds a case to show that one truly hasn't repented. Furthermore, God knows your true intentions and even if you deceive humans, God will still pwn you with a holy banstick.
Furthermore, this isn't to say that its a 'get out of jail free card'. He will still have to deal with paying blood money for the murder of this innocent child. That itself could put him in debt for a LOOOONG time EVEN IF he truly realizes the error of his way, and makes amends and engages in good actions to cancel out this heinous crime.
edit:
Lol clarficiation