Religious Leaders Call DOD’s Planned Livestreamed Public Execution ‘Barbaric’

Religious leaders are coming out in opposition to the currently planned livestream of the public execution of Fort Hood mass murderer Nidal Hasan.

Hasan is scheduled to be executed Dec. 3 for shooting and killing 13 people, and wounding 32 others, in 2009 at the Texas military base. Should it come to fruition as currently intended, it will be the first public execution in the United States since 1936.

On Oct. 8., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made waves when he said the execution would be public. The Pentagon confirmed to Military.com that the current plan involves “livestreaming” Hasan’s death, with logistics on the execution and its apparent online streaming not yet publicly released.

The plan has drawn bipartisan criticism and concern from human rights groups, as well as condemnation from a series of religious leaders.

Religious Leaders Want ‘Barbaric’ Plan Scrapped

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who provides pastoral services to Catholics in the U.S. military, said in a statement on Monday that if a Catholic soldier is assigned to the firing squad, they should ask to be excused from that duty.

The crime committed by Hasan “was heinous, but does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?” Broglio said.

“The U.S. military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world,” Broglio added. “Is there really a value to throwing them in the same boat with terrorists by broadcasting the image of the execution of a man in a wheelchair to the whole world?”

On Oct. 9, Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the decision “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death” and said it “must be reconsidered.”

Hegseth’s announcement, and public support of it from President Donald Trump, also drew the attention of the pontiff.

“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” Pope Leo wrote on X on Oct. 10.

“The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption,” the pope added.

Trump Administration Reacts to the Plan

Various politicians have also weighed in on the proposed public execution, including some voicing support.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that the prospect was part of “restoring American values.”

“First of all, no one has to watch it,” Mullin said Sunday on CBS News’ Face the Nation. “I follow President Trump. He’s the commander in chief of the country, and he does a phenomenal job. He leads this country with a very, very, very direct, forward, straight hand, and he’s restoring American values.”

“I have no sympathy for him, and I give absolutely zero thought to the way that this man dies,” he added.

President Donald Trump said Oct. 9 during a White House event that Hasan will be getting “the death penalty through firing squad. And he deserves it.” Trump called him “a maniac.”

Vice President JD Vance, however, told reporters the same day that he was “not going to be watching it” while in the same breath admonishing Hasan for being “a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people.”

Hegseth said last week that “people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”