Thirty inmates have been executed in the United States this year, and eight more executions are scheduled, as the military plans to livestream Nidal Malik Hasan’s execution on Dec. 3. The state’s machinery of death keeps running. Now the military wants an audience.
Rachel Sutphin, whose father was killed while serving as a sheriff’s deputy, opposes capital punishment. “This place where (in) the name of revenge, taking an eye for an eye, has become socially acceptable and has almost become a form of entertainment -- that very much concerns me,” she said. Sutphin helped a coalition that successfully argued for abolishing the death penalty in Virginia in 2021. The Pentagon’s announcement, she said, might draw her back into advocacy.
The state makes the killing visible
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday that the military would livestream Hasan’s execution. The decision surprised some supporters of capital punishment. Vice President JD Vance questioned Friday whether the livestream would happen and said he wouldn’t watch. Retiring North Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis called it “beyond disgusting.”
Hasan is the Fort Hood shooter, and the military has scheduled his execution by firing squad. Brenner Fissell, vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said he knew of no legal obstacles that would bar the administration from livestreaming it. “You don’t have a right to a secret death,” he said.
Public executions were common in the United States from the Revolution into the 20th century. At times, crowds treated them as mass entertainment. None has taken place since the late 1930s. Fissell said public executions “are seen by most civilized societies as grotesque and barbaric.” Almost every European nation has abolished capital punishment.
Robert Blecker, a professor emeritus at New York Law School, argues that public executions could force the government to accept responsibility for carrying them out. “Shouldn’t the people have access to what’s being done in their name?” he said. “If we can’t stomach and can’t tolerate it, then abolish it.” Blecker considers capital punishment morally appropriate in a few cases involving the worst criminals, while agreeing with some criticism of how officials administer it.
A botched execution, and a fight over methods
Christa Pike survived an attempted execution on Oct. 1. Tennessee Republican legislators didn’t back away from supporting the death penalty afterward; they considered returning to the electric chair or allowing firing squads. The debate over method leaves the state’s authority to execute in place.
Idaho recently made the firing squad the state’s primary execution method, viewing it as more humane because death comes quicker and botched executions are less likely. Idaho state Republican Rep. Bruce Skaug, a retired attorney who introduced the legislation, said executions should be rare, but when a court imposes the punishment, it is the government’s duty to “carry it out properly.” The Pentagon’s announcement surprised him, too. “That’s a difficult one for me to swallow.”
When Pike was sentenced to die in 1996 after a jury convicted her of murdering a classmate, 37 states had capital punishment and annual U.S. executions were rising. Since then, 10 states have abolished the death penalty, and executions haven’t returned to their late-1990s peak. The family of Colleen Slemmer, whom Pike was convicted of killing, supports Pike’s execution.
Public opinion and organized opposition
A Pew Research Center poll conducted in July found about two-thirds of U.S. adults consider the death penalty morally justified for people convicted of murder. About 6 in 10 said it doesn’t deter crime, while about 7 in 10 said there is some risk an innocent person could be executed. Gallup’s trend shows support has fallen considerably since the 1990s.
Religious institutions are divided. The Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod support the death penalty, citing Biblical passages on retributive justice and the authority God grants to punish grave crimes. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and several mainline Protestant denominations oppose it, grounding their positions in redemption and the “sanctity of life.”
Clergy members, chaplains and faith-group volunteers provide spiritual counseling, prayer and personal support to death-row inmates and their families. Faith-based groups also organize prayer vigils and letter-writing campaigns and lobby lawmakers to commute sentences or abolish capital punishment. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the livestream plan Friday: “This decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” he said.