VP Vance casts doubt on live-streaming the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin explores the history of firing squads in the United States, the controversy surrounding a proposed livestream of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan’s execution and Vice President JD Vance’s concerns about publicly broadcasting the death sentence on ‘Special Report.’
The leading U.S. archbishop responsible for Catholic ministry within the military is urging Catholic soldiers to seek an exemption from taking part in the planned firing squad execution of convicted Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Malik Hasan. The Pentagon has proposed livestreaming the execution.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio cited multiple concerns about the unprecedented proposal to broadcast Hasan’s death. The former Army psychiatrist was convicted in connection with the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, where 13 people were killed and 32 were wounded. Hasan, now 56, uses a wheelchair after being shot by officers responding to the rampage.
The U.S. Army says Hasan is scheduled to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. CST. If carried out, it would be the first execution by firing squad in the U.S. military since 1945 and the first military execution by any method since 1961. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has said Hasan should be executed at the same time, on the same day of the week and at the same location as the shooting. He has also argued that making the execution public could provide a deterrent.
Broglio said he remembered presiding over the funeral of Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in the Fort Hood attack, and expressed deep sorrow over the shooting. Still, he questioned whether the government intended to “imitate the terrorists of this world” by turning the killing of an adversary into a public spectacle.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio has voiced strong opposition to the Pentagon’s unprecedented proposal to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
“Hasan’s crime was heinous, but does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?” Broglio asked in a statement.
“I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church,” he added.
Army rules allow service members to request religious exemptions or other faith-based accommodations.
The military has not explained how it plans to choose the soldiers who would form the firing squad.
“The U.S. military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world,” Broglio said. “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?”
No U.S. government execution has ever been broadcast publicly. That fact has made the Pentagon’s proposal especially controversial, prompting criticism from religious figures and political leaders.
Broglio is among several Catholic leaders who have condemned the plan to livestream Hasan’s execution.
Major Nidal Malik Hasan is scheduled to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3, a proceeding that would make him the first person executed by firing squad by the U.S. military since 1945. (REUTERS/Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences/Handout)
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Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was “shocked” and deeply saddened by the proposal for a public execution and called on the government 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,” Coakley said in a statement 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.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, described the proposed livestream as “truly incomprehensible” and said turning an execution into entertainment or spectacle was unacceptable.
“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.
In an English translation published by Vatican News, Parolin said, “It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to use this method in this day and age. I do not know for what purpose. It is certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle. However guilty the person may be, there are other ways.”
Parolin further said the death penalty is “incompatible with human dignity” and does not function as a deterrent.
Pope Leo XIV reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty as “inadmissible” in a social media post on Saturday marking World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Citing Catholic doctrine revised under his predecessor, Pope Francis, Leo emphasized that the death penalty violates human dignity.
“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, the first American pope, wrote on X without specifically mentioning the Pentagon’s execution plan for Hasan.
A U.S. government execution has never been broadcast to the general public, making it an unprecedented plan that has drawn backlash from political and religious leaders. (Aaron Schwartz / AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump said Saturday he had not yet decided whether to allow the livestream plan to move forward, although he has reportedly expressed doubts in private about broadcasting the execution.
Vice President JD Vance, who is a Catholic, expressed skepticism about whether the Pentagon would proceed with a public execution. He said he would not watch the livestream if it were carried out.
Several lawmakers, including Republicans, have spoken out against plans to broadcast the execution.
“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said on Thursday. “It should not be happening in America.”