VP Vance Questions Live-streaming of Fort Hood Shooter’s Execution
Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin explores the history of firing squads in the U.S. and raises concerns about plans to broadcast the execution of Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter. She also highlights Vice President JD Vance’s apprehensions regarding the live-streaming proposal during a segment on ‘Special Report.’
Pope Leo XIV recently condemned the death penalty, calling it “inadmissible,” coinciding with the Pentagon facing backlash over its plan to livestream an execution scheduled for later this year.
In a social media post on World Day Against the Death Penalty, the first American pope voiced his opposition to capital punishment. Referring to Catholic doctrine updated under Pope Francis, he asserted that the death penalty breaches human dignity. “The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” Leo stated, emphasizing that public safety and justice can be achieved without resorting to capital punishment.
He concluded with, “#NoDeathPenalty.”
VETERAN SHOT SEVEN TIMES IN THE FORT HOOD MASSACRE HAS A WARNING FOR VIEWERS OF THE EXECUTION
In 2018, Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church’s official stance on capital punishment, labeling it “inadmissible” under all circumstances. Before this revision, Church teaching allowed for the death penalty when it was the only way to protect society from a dangerous individual. Although prior popes had accepted this exception, Pope John Paul II had increasingly called for an end to capital punishment, underscoring the ongoing human dignity of even the guilty.
While Leo’s remarks didn’t directly reference the U.S. execution plans, they follow the Pentagon’s announcement that it has scheduled a firing squad execution for Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted for a mass shooting at Fort Hood in 2009. Hasan killed 13 individuals and injured 32 others. His execution is set for December 3, which would make him the first person executed by firing squad in the U.S. military since 1945.
President Donald Trump mentioned on Saturday that he had not yet made a decision regarding the livestreaming plan, which was advocated by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, identified as a Catholic, expressed doubt about whether the Pentagon would go forward with the public execution and stated he would not watch it if it were to occur.
Several lawmakers, including Republicans, have voiced their opposition to the execution broadcast. “Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do,” remarked Senator Thom Tillis, R-N.C. “It should not be happening in America.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, criticized the initiative, labeling it “truly incomprehensible” and unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.
“The Church’s position is one of total opposition to the death penalty; it contradicts human dignity and does not act as a deterrent,” Parolin noted. “It’s hard to fathom why anyone would want to use this approach today—it’s clearly unacceptable to make death a spectacle.”
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Trump added that the death penalty “is incompatible with human dignity and doesn’t effectively deter crime.” Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. bishops’ conference, expressed “shock” and “great sorrow” over the public execution plan and urged a re-evaluation of the decision. “While Hasan’s acts cannot be excused, this decision promotes a culture of death and should be reconsidered,” he stated. “Executing even one who has committed serious harm will further damage our nation’s moral fabric and stain the conscience of its people.”
Leo’s statement did not address the recent botched lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike in Tennessee, who survived an execution attempt despite receiving two separate doses of pentobarbital.
