Trump Weighs Livestreaming Firing Squad Execution of Nidal Hasan

President Donald Trump is weighing whether to authorize the public livestreaming of the execution of Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon announced that Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas. If carried out, this would be the first U.S. military firing squad execution since 1945.

Trump stated he is considering if the broadcast would deter others from similar acts, though he has not made a final determination. Vice President JD Vance expressed skepticism that the broadcast will occur and stated he would not watch it. Republican Senator Thom Tillis condemned the proposal, arguing that public executions are a practice of oppressive dictatorships and should not happen in America.

The proposal follows the botched September 30 execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, who became the first U.S. death row inmate to survive lethal injection. Pike is currently recovering in a hospital under armed guard, though she remains partially shackled to her bed.

Pope Leo XIV condemned the death penalty as inadmissible and an attack on human dignity on World Day Against the Death Penalty. Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Coakley, denounced the livestreaming plan, with Parolin calling the transformation of death into a spectacle unacceptable and Coakley describing it as a barbaric promotion of a culture of death.