Church leaders split over Pentagon plan to livestream Fort Hood gunman's firing-squad execution

Religious leaders across several traditions spoke out on Friday, Oct. 9, against the Defense Department's plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. The Army has scheduled his firing-squad execution for Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. local time at Fort Hood, The Hill and the AP reported. It would be the first military execution in more than 60 years.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an interview this week, "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public." Pentagon officials said on Thursday, Oct. 8, that the execution would be livestreamed, with details to follow, the AP reported. Asked on Friday, President Donald Trump said "we'll be making a determination on that," and minutes later, "Did I approve? Absolutely," according to The Hill, which said it was unclear whether he meant the execution or the livestream. The BBC reported that a final determination had not been made. Vice President JD Vance said he was not sure it would happen and would not watch if it did.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said in a statement that the decision "is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered." He added, "The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people."

Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), told Religion News Service (RNS) that he affirms the "need for justice," but that a livestreamed firing squad "risks turning one of the state's most solemn responsibilities into a public spectacle." The Most Rev. Sean Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, called the idea "reprehensible in the extreme." Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner of the Union for Reform Judaism called the decision "reprehensible." Shane Claiborne, co-founder of Red Letter Christians, compared it to the spectacle of past lynchings and public hangings.

Some pastors backed the plan. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, told RNS that "the more people that can see that truth illustrated through a public execution, the better." Doug Wilson, a pastor in Moscow, Idaho, said he prefers public executions to those carried out "in the recesses of a prison," but warned against a "circus" atmosphere. The United Nations warned on Friday that a livestream would "constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," the BBC reported. Legal challenges are expected.