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Pope Leo XIV again condemned the death penalty on October 10, saying it violates the sanctity of human life and denies people the chance of redemption.
The U.S. Army plans to execute by firing squad Nidal Hasan, a former military psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed. If carried out, it would be the first broadcast of an execution in the United States.
“The common good can be protected and the demands of justice met without resorting to the death penalty,” Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, wrote on social media for the World Day Against the Death Penalty. Without directly addressing the Pentagon’s livestream plan, he said capital punishment was “unacceptable because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”
Hasan is expected to be the first person executed by the U.S. military by firing squad since 1945. The livestream plan, backed by Hegseth, has drawn objections from some Republican lawmakers, religious leaders and international observers.
President Donald Trump has said he has not yet decided whether to authorize the broadcast. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, has also expressed doubts about whether the Pentagon will carry out the plan. Hasan’s execution is scheduled for December 3. Vance said he would not watch if the broadcast goes ahead.
The plan comes as debate over the death penalty has intensified again in the United States. The discussion was prompted in part by a botched attempt last week to execute a woman by lethal injection in Tennessee.
