The Pentagon plans to livestream the Dec. 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009. No official execution has ever been broadcast live in the United States, The New York Times reported. This would be a first, inviting Americans to watch on phones, laptops and other screens.
The plan has opened a rift inside the administration and the Catholic Church.
The Plan
The execution is set for the same base where Hasan opened fire, on the same day of the week and at the same time of day. Officials haven't described any limits on who could watch, though an Army manual restricts witnesses at an execution. The Times reported that the livestream proposal surprised some people within the administration.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the idea in an interview with a conservative news outlet. "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand there's serious consequences for these types of things," he said.
President Donald Trump said he had approved the execution plan. "Did I approve? Absolutely I did," he told reporters. At a White House event, he said Hasan would receive "the death penalty through firing squad. And he deserves it," and called him "a maniac." Trump didn't mention the Pentagon's livestream plan at that event.
A Vice President's Doubts
The clearest hesitation came from inside the White House. Vice President JD Vance questioned whether the broadcast would happen at all. "I don't know that that's actually going to happen," he said. If it did, he added, "I'm not going to be watching it."
Vance didn't back away from the punishment itself. "So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don't forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people," he said. Vance is a convert to the Catholic Church, which has long opposed capital punishment.
The Church Objects
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the decision in blunt terms. "It is with shock and great sorrow that I have learned of the Department of War's decision to publicly livestream the execution of Nidal Hassan," he said. "Our God is the God of life. In no way can Hassan's actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered."
Coakley didn't excuse the crime. His objection targets the spectacle, not the verdict.
How the Firing Squad Came Back
Trump approved the firing-squad method days after a failed attempt late last month to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection. That failure prompted Tennessee's governor to halt further executions in the state this year. Hegseth said the military had not executed a service member by firing squad since World War II.
The military last executed someone on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged. That was 65 years ago by year arithmetic. Hasan's attack came 17 years ago by the same count. The justice at issue here has been a long time coming.
Why This Matters:
A sentence handed down after a lawful conviction is one thing. Turning its carrying out into a public broadcast is another. The distinction has drawn scrutiny from the vice president and the nation's Catholic bishops alike. The episode shows how a government exercising its gravest power invites questions about restraint, process and proportion. Military justice has moved slowly for decades, and the fallout from Tennessee's botched lethal injection shows what happens when the machinery of execution fails. Whether Washington proceeds with a livestream or quietly drops it will signal how seriously the administration weighs institutional dignity against the demand to show that consequences are real. Supporters of capital punishment have often argued it must be carried out with solemnity. That argument now faces an internal test.