Thirty inmates have been executed in the United States this year, and eight more executions are scheduled, most of them in Texas and Florida. The military has scheduled a firing-squad execution for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan on Dec. 3 and announced plans to livestream it, putting the government’s use of the death penalty at the center of a new public dispute.
The State’s Power
The planned livestream surprised some supporters of capital punishment. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the plan Thursday. Vice President JD Vance questioned Friday whether it would happen and said he wouldn’t watch. Retiring North Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis called a livestream “beyond disgusting.”
The government still has authority to carry out executions, even as public support has fallen from its 1990s levels. Nearly half of states have abolished capital punishment, while a handful carry out most executions. Ten states have abolished the penalty since Christa Pike received a death sentence in 1996 after a jury convicted her of murdering a classmate. Executions haven’t returned to their late-1990s peak.
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, and about 7 in 10 said there’s some risk an innocent person could be executed. Gallup’s trend also indicates that support for capital punishment has fallen considerably since the 1990s.
Who Bears the Consequences
Pike survived an attempted execution on Oct. 1. Tennessee Republican legislators continued to support the death penalty afterward and considered bringing back the electric chair or allowing firing squads. Idaho recently made the firing squad the state’s primary execution method. Idaho state Republican Rep. Bruce Skaug, a retired attorney who introduced the legislation, said he believes executions should be rare, but that when a court imposes the punishment, it’s the government’s duty to “carry it out properly.” He said the Pentagon’s livestream announcement was “a difficult one for me to swallow.”
Families of people killed hold different positions on execution. The family of Colleen Slemmer, whom Pike was convicted of killing, supports Pike’s execution. Rachel Sutphin, a Presbyterian pastor whose father was killed while serving as a sheriff’s deputy, opposes the death penalty. Virginia executed the man convicted of killing him in 2017, making him the state’s last person executed.
Sutphin joined a coalition that successfully argued for abolishing capital punishment in Virginia in 2021. She said the Pentagon’s announcement might draw her back into advocacy. “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.
Abolition and Public Resistance
Public executions were common in the United States from the Revolution into the 20th century and sometimes drew crowds seeking mass entertainment. None has taken place since the late 1930s. Brenner Fissell, vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said public executions “are seen by most civilized societies as grotesque and barbaric.” He said he knew of no legal obstacles that would prevent the administration from livestreaming Hasan’s execution. “You don’t have a right to a secret death,” he said.
Robert Blecker, a professor emeritus at New York Law School, said public executions could make the government 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 supports capital punishment in a few cases involving the worst criminals, while agreeing with some criticism of how the government administers it.
Religious institutions and advocacy groups also oppose or support the government’s execution power. The Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod support the death penalty, citing Biblical passages on retributive justice and the authority granted by God 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.” Faith-based groups 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, called the military’s livestream plan “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death” and said it “must be reconsidered.”