United States President Donald Trump has announced the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will not be livestreamed. Source: EWTN News.
Mr Trump said in a Truth Social post yesterday that while he still believes “streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan … many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device.”
Mr Trump said the execution of the convicted mass shooter will still take place by firing squad on December 3 and the victims’ immediate families will be allowed to attend.
On October 8, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an interview with Real Americaʼs Voice that the execution would be livestreamed from Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, where Hasan, a psychiatrist and former Army major, killed 14 people, including an unborn baby, and wounded 32 others in the terrorist attack.
The US bishops strongly opposed the decision to livestream the execution. Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, issued a joint statement with the Texas Catholic bishops on Monday urging the President to reconsider the decision, which he characterised as “barbarically killing our adversaries.”
Archbishop Broglio reiterated the Church’s revised position on capital punishment, saying “the dignity of the human person is at stake.”
In a social media post on Saturday, World Day Against the Death Penalty, Pope Leo XIV wrote: “The death penalty is inadmissible because it attacks the inviolability and dignity of the person.”
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin stated on October 9 that plans to broadcast the execution live were unacceptable. “It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to resort to this method in this day and age,” he said.
The decision to livestream the execution brought worldwide condemnation, including from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“Australia has had a bipartisan position of opposition to the death penalty and I find the idea of live streaming the death of anybody completely abhorrent,” Mr Albanese said on Tuesday.
FULL STORY
Firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter will not be livestreamed, Trump says (By Amira Abuzeid, EWTN News)
Social platforms have ‘responsibility’ to block US execution live stream, Albanese says (By Ewa Staszewska, ABC News)
