Controversy mounts over plan to livestream U.S. firing-squad execution... Pope: “Unacceptable”

[Financial News]  

CNN reported on the 10th, local time, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s abrupt announcement that he planned to livestream the execution by firing squad of a condemned Army mass shooter had left the Defense Department and the Army deeply unsettled. The military is also grappling with confusion as controversy grows within the administration, including over Vice President JD Vance’s questioning of the plan to livestream the execution.
According to the Associated Press, U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV lamented that executions taking place in his homeland were “unacceptable.”

On the 7th, Defense Secretary Hegseth abruptly announced the plan to livestream the execution in an interview with far-right podcaster Jack Posobiec, while aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, which had returned after taking part in the war with Iran. He was there to welcome service members.
“People need to understand that there are serious consequences to this kind of thing,” Hegseth said. “That’s why we’re going to let people—the ‘public’—see this execution.”
According to CNN, both the Army and the Defense Department were taken aback when they first learned of the livestream plan. In particular, there is considerable debate over who is meant by “the public.” Army regulations allow the condemned person’s family, victims’ relatives, media representatives and one member of the clergy to attend the execution.
However, a source said Hegseth, acting Army Secretary Adam Tel and Sean Parnell of the Defense Department’s public affairs office interpreted “the public” to mean a livestream.

According to CNN, the plan to livestream the execution has shocked many active-duty service members and reservists and drawn backlash from Republicans as well as Democrats.
Even Vice President Vance questioned on the 9th whether a livestream would actually be possible. He said he did not know “whether that would actually be possible” and that he “wouldn’t watch” even if it were livestreamed.
An Army officer who had been deployed to the Middle East several times told CNN, “If the execution is made public, everything America has stood for will disappear.” The officer warned, “Lining up uniformed soldiers (the firing squad) in front of a man in a wheelchair and making them watch him be shot would cause irreparable harm to society as a whole.”
President Donald Trump, who approved the execution by firing squad, said during an event honoring Christopher Columbus at the White House on the 9th, “We’re executing a man who killed 14 soldiers years ago,” adding, “He deserves to be executed by a firing squad.”
Trump went on to defend the decision, saying, “I understand the decision,” although he had not been involved in the decision to livestream the execution.
He did, however, indicate that Hasan would be executed by firing squad, while leaving it to the administration to decide whether to livestream it. He declined to say whether he would watch if it were livestreamed.

Even if the execution is livestreamed, the details have yet to be decided. It has also been reported that the composition of the firing squad has not been settled, as the psychological toll on the soldiers who carry out the execution must be considered. One source said special forces had been selected to carry out the execution.
The confusion surrounding the livestream is even more acute. It has not been decided how to keep the identities of the firing-squad members from becoming known to the public, or whether the execution will be streamed on sites other than the Defense Department’s own website. Livestreaming is prohibited on broadcast and social media platforms because they block violent and graphic content.
Another source said it was also unclear whether a soldier selected for the firing squad could refuse. Since it is a lawful order, there would be no grounds to refuse the assignment to carry out the execution by firing squad, even if the soldier did not want to do it.
Another source also said that while many soldiers “take lives in combat,” carrying out an execution by firing squad is a different matter.

On the 10th, the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Pope Leo XIV lamented what was happening in his homeland, calling it “unacceptable.”
On social media platform X, the pope cited remarks by Pope Francis to the press and recalled the Catholic Church’s teaching that the death penalty is an attack on human beings’ inherent dignity.
The pope said, “The requirements of justice can be met without resorting to the death penalty,” adding that humanity had already developed an effective system of incarceration that could protect citizens without taking the lives of criminals.

The condemned man whose execution is to be livestreamed is Nidal Hasan, 56, a psychiatrist who opened fire on the afternoon of November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, an Army base in Texas. He killed 13 unarmed soldiers and wounded 32. He held the rank of major at the time and was sentenced to death in 2013. Last week, Trump approved an execution by firing squad for the first time since World War II.
The Defense Department said the execution would be carried out at Fort Hood, the site of the massacre, on the afternoon of December 3.

[email protected] Song Gyeong-jae Reporter