Pope Leo XIV has spoken out against the death penalty after the Pentagon announced plans to broadcast live the execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan. “The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the sanctity and dignity of the person,” Leo, the first pope from the United States (US), wrote on X on Saturday.
According to him, the common good can be protected and the demands of justice met without resorting to the death penalty. “Effective detention systems have been developed that protect citizens while not completely depriving those who are guilty of the opportunity for redemption.”
“The public execution, even of one who has caused serious harm, will only further erode the moral fabric of our country and be a stain on the conscience of its people.”
Archbishop Paul Coakley
Although Leo did not specifically mention executions in the US, his comments come at a time of renewed attention to the way the death penalty is carried out in the US. The Pentagon announced that Hasan’s upcoming execution would be broadcast live, while last week the execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee was botched.
Condemnation
Archbishop Paul Coakley, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, on Friday condemned the decision to broadcast Hasan’s execution live. In a statement, Coakley said 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 committed serious harm, will only further erode the moral fabric of our country and be a stain on the conscience of its people. I pray for the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel that as a nation we will always choose life, even in the most trying of times and circumstances.”
Trump Approval
US President Donald Trump, an outspoken supporter of the death penalty, told reporters on Friday that he had personally approved the decision to broadcast Hasan’s execution live. “Did I approve it? Absolutely!” he boasted.
Asked whether he wanted the execution to be broadcast live and whether he was concerned that the video could be used as propaganda, he said: “Well, they’re weighing that up, but he’s going to be killed. He’s going to be executed by firing squad… I honestly don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes. And I think the death penalty is a very appropriate way for him to go.” Trump did not respond when asked if he planned to watch the livestream.
Insanely disgusting
Many Democrats and several Republicans have condemned the plan. Retiring North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis called it “insanely disgusting.”
Vice President JD Vance, who converted to the Catholic Church, also questioned Friday whether the Pentagon would go through with the plan to broadcast the execution live. “I don’t know if that will actually happen,” he told reporters.
Vance also tried to put the controversy into perspective by pointing out Hasan’s crimes. “Whatever the controversy over the method of execution, I hope people remember that this is a man who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” he said. “But anyway, having said that, look, if it ends up being broadcast live, I’m not going to watch.”
December 3
Hasan’s execution by army firing squad is scheduled for December 3 at 1 p.m. “It will be soldiers with guns who form the firing squad,” Defense Minister Pete Hegseth said Wednesday in an interview with Jack Posobiec of the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice on Wednesday. “And we will make sure that people can see it, that it is public, because people need to understand that there are serious consequences for this kind of thing.”
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist with the rank of major, walked into a medical building where soldiers at Fort Hood were waiting to receive medical clearance for deployment on November 5, 2009. He shouted “Allahu akbar” (Arabic for “God is great!”) and opened fire. He also shot in the back of soldiers who fled to the parking lot. Hasan said it was an attempt to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims.
Hasan, paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back by police, now uses a wheelchair. An army court-martial in 2013 convicted him of all 42 charges against him and imposed the death penalty. He admitted during his court-martial that he was the shooter and said he had switched sides.
Unprecedented step
Hegseth said the military has not executed a soldier by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when soldier John Bennett was hanged.
If the plan goes ahead, it would be the first time the government has broadcast or livestreamed an execution in U.S. history. Robin Maher, director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), said Newsweek that the center has no record of any execution in the US that was broadcast live. “Our records indicate that the last public execution took place in the 1930s. We have no data on an execution that was live streamed,” she said.
