Trump cancels live broadcast of Fort Hood gunman's execution after bishops object

President Donald Trump announced on October 15 on his social network Truth Social that he was canceling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's plan to broadcast the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan live. Hasan is the former Army psychiatrist sentenced to death for the mass shooting at Fort Hood, the Army base in Texas, in November 2009, in which 13 people were killed and at least 31 others wounded. The execution, set for December 3 by firing squad, will go ahead as scheduled but without a public broadcast. The announcement followed condemnations from American and German Catholic bishops, civil society organizations and a large majority of the public.

The shooting and the conviction

Hasan, who reached the rank of major in the Army, became increasingly radicalized after learning he was to be deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. On May 9, 2009, he entered the Fort Hood base armed with two handguns and opened fire, killing 13 people and wounding at least 31, until a police bullet left him paralyzed. He shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the attack. It later emerged that he followed Islamic law, had attended a mosque in Virginia led by Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam who promoted terrorism, and had argued that Muslims should rise up against the US Army. He was convicted in August 2013 and sentenced to death less than a week later. The execution will be the first by firing squad in the US military since World War II.

Hegseth's announcement and Trump's reversal

The dispute began on October 8, when Hegseth said in an interview with Real America's Voice News that the execution would take place on December 3 and would be public. "We will make sure people can see it, that it is public," the defense secretary said. He later confirmed on social media that this meant a live broadcast.

In his Truth Social post, Trump described Hasan as "a very bad and evil man" and said the broadcast "could have been a powerful deterrent for the world to see how America treats terrorists." He added that "many very good and well-meaning people would prefer not to watch him die, through the broadcast or any other visual device." Trump said the execution "will be carried out, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this act will not be broadcast," and said the immediate families of the victims may witness it if they wish.

US bishops' response

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the original plan "a barbaric promotion of the culture of death" that "must be reconsidered." Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, also demanded that the plan be reconsidered. He encouraged any Catholic to request an exemption from serving on the firing squad, as they would with any action that contradicts the teachings of their faith.

In his appeal, Broglio asked: "Do we really want to imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries?" and "Does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?" The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, in the state where Fort Hood is located, also condemned the plan.

In Germany, Archbishop Udo Markus Bentz of Paderborn, president of the German Justitia et Pax Commission, criticized the plan as well. "This media staging of death is reprehensible," he said. "When a state allows a person to be killed in front of the cameras, it tramples on human dignity, which cannot be denied even to someone who has committed the gravest crimes." Bentz welcomed the US bishops' criticism for pointing out that "the culture of death cannot be promoted in such a barbaric way," and demanded that "this spectacle" not be accessible in Europe through digital media.

Church teaching on the death penalty

The dispute has again drawn attention to the Catholic Church's position on capital punishment. Official Church teaching opposes it as a violation of the inherent sanctity of human life and calls for its abolition worldwide. In 2018, Pope Francis revised number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to state that the death penalty is morally "inadmissible" in the modern world "because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person," and declared that the Church "works with determination for its abolition worldwide."

Pope Leo XIV repeated that teaching in a post on X on October 10, the World Day Against the Death Penalty. The earlier text of the Catechism said that "the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty" when absolutely necessary, while noting that such cases were "very rare, if not practically non-existent."

Catholic groups and polling

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, welcomed Trump's reversal but said the execution itself should not go ahead. "I am grateful that President Trump listened to the fierce opposition to the proposed idea of a live-streamed military execution," she said. "We do not need to expose our corrections staff, military personnel or anyone else to the trauma of executions. We know the death penalty does not deter crime or make our communities safer."

A poll published on October 15 by The Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos found that a large majority of Americans opposed Hegseth's plan to broadcast the execution. While 53 percent of Americans said they supported executing Hasan by firing squad, against 42 percent opposed, 80 percent said the execution should not be broadcast publicly. Majorities in every political group opposed the broadcast: 91 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of independents and 64 percent of Republicans. Among Republicans who identify with MAGA (Make America Great Again), 55 percent also opposed the broadcast.