The Pope condemns the death penalty as Trump weighs livestreaming an execution
Pope Leo XIV said Saturday, on World Day Against the Death Penalty, that capital punishment is inadmissible because it attacks the inviolability of human dignity, The Hill and CBS News reported, as the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the December firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan drew backlash. Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, was sentenced to death by a military jury. The Hill and Fox News reported that Trump said he will make a decision ultimately on the livestream, calling Hasan a vicious killer. The Washington Post and NBC News carried the same remarks. Separately, NPR, The Guardian and BBC reported that Christa Pike, who survived Tennessee’s failed Sept. 30 lethal injection, has left the hospital and returned to prison. The New York Times wrote that the two cases have renewed a divided national debate.
A broadcast execution would be the first of its kind in the modern U.S., and it has split Republicans as well as Democrats. The Pike case raises separate questions about how states carry out lethal injections.
There is nothing to decide as a reader, but the livestream question is likely to reach platforms and broadcasters, who would have to decide whether to carry the footage.
A mass killer was lawfully sentenced, and the punishment can be shown openly as a matter of transparency.
Turning an execution into a broadcast degrades the law and could harm victims’ families and viewers.
Watch whether Trump ends the plan or approves it, and whether the Pentagon confirms a date. Until then, the livestream is a proposal.
DailyDrop U.S. No. 7 · October 11, 2026