Politicians from both major parties are speaking out against the U.S. Department of Justice’s proposal to livestream the firing squad execution of a man who opened fire on Fort Hood military base in 2009.
Even those who believe that former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan — who killed 13 people and wounded 32 in the Fort Hood massacre — should be executed have questioned why it would be broadcast to the public.
And it’s not certain that the livestream, announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week, will even happen. President Donald Trump has said that it’s his decision whether to broadcast. “There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it. ’Cause you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So I’ll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision,” the president told reporters at the White House last week.
The execution is tentatively scheduled to take place at Fort Hood on December 3, but anti-death penalty advocates say Hasan can still file appeals that could take years to go through the court system. The condemned man said during a 2013 trial that he intended to be a martyr when he opened fire on the military base and that he committed the mass killing to prevent U.S. soldiers from going to Afghanistan to harm Muslims.
Hasan was shot by police during the attack and is paralyzed from the waist down. He’s serving his time in a wheelchair on death row at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The United States last conducted a military execution in 1961, when U.S. Army Private John Arthur Bennett, convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl, was hanged. The government has not executed a member of the military by firing squad since 1945, when Army Private Eddie Slovik was shot for desertion.
Hegseth’s suggestion that Hasan’s execution would be livestreamed sparked swift opposition.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the idea “beyond disgusting.” Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch it if it happens. However, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin went on CBS News’ Face the Nation to defend the livestream proposal. “No one has to watch it if they don’t choose to,” he said.
U.S. Congressman Christian Menefee, a Democrat who represents Houston and a portion of Fort Bend County, told the Houston Press that Trump took the party of ‘movies and video games are too violent for our kids’ and turned it into the party of “we’re bringing an execution straight to your screens.”
“A live-streamed execution is sick,” Menefee said. “[Trump] and Pete Hegseth continue to disgrace their offices. Whatever you think of the death penalty, it shouldn’t be a public spectacle.”
Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, also a Democrat who represents Houston, said the victims of the Fort Hood mass shooting and their families deserve justice and accountability but Hegseth’s announcement that he intends to livestream the shooter’s execution “does not further those ends.”
“Public executions should not happen in the United States,” Fletcher said. “Turning death into a public spectacle dehumanizes and degrades us, individually and collectively. This decision is another one of many that are out of step with the rule of law and our expectations of American leaders. It is not too late to reverse this decision, and that is what should happen.”
Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun, anti-death penalty advocate and author of the book Dead Man Walking, posted on social media Monday that “violence against those we hate and call enemies seems to be a way of life for us. Killing enemies is seen as morally good, American, even redemptive. Government killings in execution chambers normalize legalized killings.”
“Some officials even invoke God’s approval of the killings. In a real stretch, some invoke Christ’s blessing. Not the Jesus Christ I try to follow. Not the Jesus I know, who forgave his executioners from the very cross on which they were killing him,” Prejean added.
She further noted that the livestream allows the execution to be viewed by children and adults, and it can be recorded for later viewings. People can become radicalized by repeatedly viewing a violent death, Prejean said.
Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of the Ohio-based Death Penalty Action nonprofit, told the Press that anti-death penalty advocates expected Trump was planning a spectacle when the DOJ announced earlier this year that it would allow firing squad executions for federal death penalty cases. However, Bonowitz said, he doesn’t think Hasan will be executed anytime soon.
“They know that this guy has yet to begin his federal habeas appeals, which is a standard set of appeals for someone facing execution,” Bonowitz said. “Unless he’s waiving those appeals, which we haven’t heard about, then he’s nowhere near ready for an execution warrant. They’re just trying to subvert the news media cycles and distract from a war that’s gone wrong and the way that elections are going for Republicans, which is badly.”
Although the mass shooting took place in Texas and the firing squad execution is proposed to take place at the Fort Hood base where the attacks occurred, some prominent Texas politicians have been silent on the matter.
Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did U.S. Senate hopefuls, GOP nominee Ken Paxton and Democratic nominee James Talarico.
Abbott’s opponent in the November election, Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, told MS NOW that the plan to livestream an execution is shocking, immoral and un-American.
“I just got off the phone with my Catholic priest who could not believe that was happening in our country,” she said. “It is wrong. It is inhumane, and it is really outrageous that this is happening.”
Texas law does not permit firing squad executions — Hasan’s case is a federal matter — and could only do so if new state legislation is introduced, which no one has proposed.
Bonowitz’s Death Penalty Action group held a protest at Fort Hood on October 11, and he said he ate lunch with an active-duty military member posted there who said he was concerned about who would be selected to carry out Hasan’s execution.
“He wasn’t necessarily opposed to the execution but he said there’s a great deal of discomfort on the base at Fort Hood about who is going to get tapped to pull the trigger and also that they’re talking about livestreaming,” Bonowitz said. “There are a number of soldiers at Fort Hood who don’t want to be a part of that and are seeking religious exemptions.”
Death Penalty Action opposes all executions, regardless of the method. Bonowitz said there’s no evidence to support that death sentences deter people from committing murder and “there’s no such thing as closure” for families who wait decades for an execution only to find that there’s still an empty seat at the dinner table during holidays.
The nonprofit leader said he hopes the execution, and certainly the livestream, doesn’t happen in December and he wants to make sure the Trump administration knows that there is widespread opposition.
“This administration is all about shock and awe. It’s about distraction,” he said. “How can they create more distraction? By being more outrageous. What’s outrageous? Livestreaming an execution.”
