Thirty inmates have been executed in the United States this year, and eight more executions are scheduled. The military’s plan to livestream Nidal Malik Hasan’s firing-squad execution has renewed debate over capital punishment and government authority. The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood. Nearly half of states have abolished the death penalty, while a handful carry out most executions.
A government execution on public display
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday that the military would livestream Hasan’s execution. The decision surprised some supporters of capital punishment and prompted objections from public officials and religious leaders. 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 the plan “beyond disgusting.”
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the proposal in a statement Friday. “This decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” he said.
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 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.
Public executions drew crowds as mass entertainment in the United States from the Revolution into the 20th century. None has taken place since the late 1930s. Robert Blecker, a professor emeritus at New York Law School, said public access could make the government accept responsibility for executions carried out in the public’s name. “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.”
Public support and doubts about punishment
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 is some risk an innocent person could be executed. Gallup’s trend shows support for capital punishment has fallen considerably since the 1990s.
The execution debate has sharpened after a botched lethal injection in Tennessee and the military’s livestream announcement. Both prompted renewed calls for abolition and public discussion among supporters about whether government executions can be carried out humanely.
Christa Pike received a death sentence in 1996 after a jury convicted her of murdering a classmate. At the time, 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.
Families, faith groups and execution methods
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 capital punishment. The man convicted of killing him was the last person Virginia executed, in 2017. Sutphin joined a coalition that successfully argued for abolishing capital punishment in Virginia in 2021. She said the Pentagon’s announcement shocked her so deeply that it 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,” Sutphin said.
After Pike survived an attempted execution on Oct. 1, Republican legislators in Tennessee continued to support the death penalty and considered bringing back the electric chair or allowing firing squads. Idaho recently made the firing squad the state’s primary execution method, viewing it as more humane because death is quicker and botched executions are less likely.
Idaho state Republican Rep. Bruce Skaug, a retired attorney who introduced the legislation, said he believes executions should be rare, but when a court imposes the punishment, the government must “carry it out properly.” He said the Pentagon’s announcement surprised him: “That’s a difficult one for me to swallow.”
Religious institutions remain divided. The Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod support capital punishment, 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.” Clergy, chaplains and faith-group volunteers counsel death-row inmates and their families, while faith-based groups hold prayer vigils, write letters and lobby lawmakers to commute sentences or abolish capital punishment.