Trump Cancels the Fort Hood Execution Livestream. Justice Should Be Sober, Not a Show.

President Trump said Thursday that the execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan will not be streamed online. Hasan will still face a firing squad on Dec. 3. But the plan to let the country watch him die, announced last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is over.

"Many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device," Trump wrote on Truth Social, according to the Guardian. "He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed." He also wrote that streaming "might have been a strong deterrent," NPR reported.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Trump and Hegseth spoke before the announcement. "The Secretary supports the President's decision, and they are completely aligned," he said.

How we got here

Hasan, a former Army major and violent Islamist extremist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood in 2009, NPR reported. His sentence will be the first military execution in more than 60 years, according to the Guardian.

Last week Hegseth told Real America's Voice, according to NPR, that "people are able to … watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that … there's serious consequences for these types of things." Lawmakers from both parties objected. Republican Sen. John Curtis had warned that it "cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment," the Guardian reported. On Thursday he called the reversal "the right move, both for the loved ones of the victims and for the country."

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released before Trump's announcement found that 80% of Americans opposed a live broadcast, including 64% of Republicans, the Guardian reported. A majority, 53%, supported executing Hasan by firing squad.

The faith voices

Christians were among the loudest objectors. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who serves Catholics in the U.S. military, issued a statement disapproving of the plan and told any Catholic assigned to the firing squad to ask to be excused, NPR reported. Vice President JD Vance, asked Friday how he squared his faith with the plan, said he doubted it would happen and that he was "not going to be watching it," according to the Guardian.

Some scholars quoted by NPR went further and tied the idea to Hegseth's church, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. One called Hegseth "a religious extremist." Readers should be careful with that kind of label. Plenty of faithful Christians across many traditions believe the death penalty can be just. Wanting a mass murderer punished does not make someone a theocrat.

Justice is not a show

Dock Line argued earlier that justice for Fort Hood should be done, but not streamed. Thursday's decision is the right one, and the president deserves credit for listening.

Scripture gives the civil ruler the sword. Paul says he "beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil" (Romans 13:4). A sentence carried out by lawful authority after due process is not murder, and Christians do not have to pretend Hasan's crimes deserve less.

But the same Bible guards our hearts against delight in another man's ruin. "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth," says Proverbs 24:17, "and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth." God himself says, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:11). Justice should be sober, even grave. Turning it into content for a phone screen trains people to enjoy what they should only accept.

The families of the 13 dead deserve justice. They do not need a spectacle to get it. Hasan will answer for what he did on Dec. 3, and then before a higher Judge. The rest of us can trust that to happen without watching.

Hero photo: Spc. Alisha Hauk, U.S. Army, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain (U.S. government work), cropped and resized.