VP Vance casts doubt on live-streaming the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin examines the history of firing squads in the United States, the debate over plans to livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan and Vice President JD Vance’s concerns about broadcasting the event on ‘Special Report.’
Pope Leo XIV has denounced the death penalty as “inadmissible” as the Pentagon faces criticism over plans to livestream an execution later this year.
The first American pope reiterated his opposition to capital punishment Saturday in a social media post commemorating World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Referencing Catholic doctrine revised under his predecessor, Pope Francis, Leo said the death penalty violates the dignity and inviolability of human life.
“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. 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,” Leo wrote on X.
He concluded the post with the hashtag “#NoDeathPenalty.”
Pope Leo XIV condemned the death penalty as “inadmissible” after the Pentagon announced unprecedented plans to livestream an execution later this year. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
In 2018, Francis changed the Catholic Church’s official teaching on capital punishment, declaring the death penalty “inadmissible” under all circumstances.
“Consequently the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” the revised Catechism states.
Prior to that revision, Catholic teaching allowed capital punishment when it was considered the only effective way to protect human life from a dangerous offender.
Earlier popes upheld that exception, although Pope John Paul II increasingly called for an end to executions and emphasized that people convicted of crimes do not lose their human dignity.
Leo did not directly refer to the U.S. government’s plans in his statement. His comments came after the Pentagon announced Thursday that it had scheduled a firing squad execution for a man convicted in a mass shooting at a military base.
Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others during a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood. His execution is scheduled for Dec. 3 at the Texas military base, which would make him the first person executed by a U.S. military firing squad since 1945.
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Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base. (REUTERS/Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences/Handout)
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had not made a final decision on whether to approve the livestream plan, which was promoted by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, questioned whether the Pentagon would ultimately proceed with a public execution and said he would not watch the livestream if it took place.
A number of lawmakers, including Republicans, have also opposed the proposal to broadcast the execution.
“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Thursday. “It should not be happening in America.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, also condemned the proposed broadcast, calling it “truly incomprehensible” and warning that it would be “unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.”
“The Church’s position is one of total opposition to the death penalty; it is incompatible with human dignity and serves as no deterrent,” Parolin told reporters Friday. “It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to use this system today — I don’t know for what purpose. It is certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle; even if the person is guilty, of course, there are other methods.”
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had not yet decided whether to allow the livestream plan, pushed by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, to move forward. (Aaron Schwartz / AFP via Getty Images)
He added that the death penalty “is incompatible with human dignity and does not serve as a deterrent.”
The head of the U.S. bishops conference, Archbishop Paul Coakley, expressed “shock” and “great sorrow” about the public execution plan and urged the U.S. to reconsider.
“In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” he said in a statement on Friday. “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.”
Leo’s statement also did not mention the botched lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike in Tennessee. Pike survived the attempted execution despite two doses of pentobarbital being administered late last month.