Pete Hegseth plans a public execution and degrades the law
By Adele Rutherford · Reporting from Atlanta ·
As Pope Leo XIV condemned capital punishment, Pete Hegseth planned a livestreamed firing squad execution, abandoning the rule of law for an administrative spectacle of vengeance.
Procedure is the shield against the theater of cruelty
When the state takes a life, it must do so with a heavy hand and a closed door. The law demands sobriety, not because we wish to spare the condemned from public scrutiny, but because the machinery of death corrupts the society that watches it. We learned this lesson after decades of public hangings and spectacles that degraded both the crowd and the crown. Yet the Department of Defense announced on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, that the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed, according to reporting from NBC News. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the declaration aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. He told podcaster Jack Posobiec that the public needs to understand serious consequences, as detailed by CNN. The Army was caught entirely off guard by the impromptu order. Military lawyers scrambled to reconcile a digital broadcast with the rigid administrative history of the United States Disciplinary Barracks. President Donald Trump later stated that he would ultimately decide whether the broadcast proceeds, according to The Washington Post. When the executive branch treats lethal force as content for an internet feed, it abandons the rule of law for the staging of vengeance.
A native pontiff meets a domestic regression
The timing of the Pentagon's announcement carried a sharp irony that reached all the way to Rome. Pope Leo XIV declared capital punishment “inadmissible” on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty, as reported by Global News. The pontiff, a native of Chicago, posted on X via the handle @Pontifex that the common good and justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment. He noted that effective detention systems protect citizens while preserving the possibility of redemption. Al Jazeera noted that Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin called the planned livestream truly incomprehensible and completely unacceptable. Parolin stated that turning death into a spectacle serves no deterrent and attacks human dignity. This teaching builds directly upon the 2018 revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The revision formally declared capital punishment inadmissible in all circumstances. Even Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. bishops conference, condemned the Pentagon plan as a barbaric promotion of a culture of death. When the American government resurrects public executions just as an American pope reiterates the absolute sanctity of human dignity, the nation steps backward into a darker era.
The mirror of historical spectacle and modern hubris
We have walked this road before, and the destination is always a coarsened republic. Nidal Malik Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base. He is scheduled for execution by firing squad. His crimes are grave, but the state's response must remain tethered to constitutional limits rather than populist theater. We saw a similar collapse of restraint in the execution of Saddam Hussein. The state's desire for public retribution swallowed its claim to justice, turning a legal sentence into a sectarian lynching. The shared mechanism in both cases is the unbearable tension between the state's urge for a public display of violence and the international standard of human dignity. Representative Austin Scott remarked that livestreaming executions is what jihadists do. Senator Mark Kelly observed that public executions resemble the practices of Iran and the Taliban, according to Al Jazeera. A rule of law that relies on digital spectacle for its legitimacy is no longer law at all. It is merely power unmasked, daring the opposition to seize the tool tomorrow and point the camera elsewhere.
The bottom line
The Pentagon's plan to livestream an execution is an administrative disgrace that invites judicial correction and moral revulsion. If the federal government turns state-sanctioned death into an internet broadcast, it shatters decades of settled legal practice. It invites a descent into barbarism that no civilized society should endure.
Sources
- NBC News: Pope Leo declares death penalty ‘inadmissible’ as his native U.S. plans to livestream execution
- CNN: Army caught off guard by Hegseth’s order to make firing squad execution public
- The Washington Post: Trump says he will ‘make a decision’ on Hegseth plan to live-stream execution
- Global News: Pope Leo declares death penalty ‘inadmissible’ as his native US plans to livestream execution
- Al Jazeera: Pope says death penalty ‘inadmissible’ as US plans to livestream execution