A botched execution and plans for one in public show the US is conflicted about capital punishment

Americans have long been divided over the death penalty, with nearly half of states banning capital punishment outright and just a handful of others carrying out most of the nation's executions each year.

The longstanding but uneasy relationship with executing the nation's worst criminals has been on clear display in recent weeks, first following a botched lethal injection in Tennessee and later after the military announced plans to livestream a death by firing squad. Both have prompted fresh calls for abolition from death penalty opponents and led supporters to publicly grapple with how to humanely carry out government executions.

When Christa Pike was sentenced to die in 1996 after being convicted of murdering a classmate, Tennessee was among 37 states that had capital punishment, and the number of annual executions in the U.S. was on the rise. Since then, 10 states have abolished capital punishment, and executions haven't approached their late 1990s peak.

Still, it is unlikely the U.S. is headed for complete abolition. Thirty inmates have been executed this year, and another eight executions have been scheduled, most of them in Texas and Florida. The military's planned firing-squad execution for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan is scheduled for Dec. 3.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's announcement Thursday that the military would livestream Hasan's execution shocked even some capital punishment supporters. Vice President JD Vance on Friday questioned whether it would happen and said he wouldn't watch. Retiring North Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis called a livestream “beyond disgusting."

While about two-thirds of U.S. adults see the death penalty as morally justified for people who have committed murder, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in July, about 6 in 10 say the death penalty does not deter crime. About 7 in 10 say there is some risk an innocent person would be put to death. Gallup’s trend suggests that support for capital punishment has fallen considerably since the 1990s.

Victims' families are often among the most vocal advocates on either side of the debate. The family of Colleen Slemmer, whom Pike was convicted of killing, has supported Pike's execution.

On the opposite side is Rachel Sutphin, a Presbyterian pastor whose father was killed in the line of duty as a sheriff's deputy. The man convicted of killing him was the last person Virginia executed, in 2017. Sutphin was part of a coalition that successfully argued for abolishing the death penalty in the state in 2021. She said the Pentagon's announcement was so shocking it might push her back into advocacy work.

“This place where (in) the name of revenge, taking an eye for an eye, has become socially acceptable and has almost become a form of entertainment -- that very much concerns me,” she said.

In Tennessee, Republican legislators weren't backing off their support for the death penalty after Pike survived her attempted execution Oct. 1. Instead, they contemplated returning to the electric chair or allowing firing squads. Idaho recently made the firing squad the state's primary execution method, viewing it as more humane because the death is quicker and the chances of botching it are remote.

Idaho state Republican Rep. Bruce Skaug, a retired attorney who introduced that legislation, said he believes the death penalty should be rare but that once the court issues such a punishment, it’s the government’s duty to “carry it out properly.”

But Skaug was surprised by the Pentagon's announcement and still pondering it Friday.

"That’s a difficult one for me to swallow.”

From the Revolution and into the 20th century, American executions were often public and sometimes treated like mass entertainment. But no public executions have taken place since the late 1930s.

Brenner Fissell, vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said public executions “are seen by most civilized societies as grotesque and barbaric.” Almost every European nation has abolished capital punishment.

But, Fissell added, he did not know of any legal obstacles that would prohibit the administration from livestreaming Hasan’s execution.

“You don’t have a right to a secret death,” he said.

But Robert Blecker, a professor emeritus at New York Law School, said there are arguments in favor of making executions public. He said it forces the government to take responsibility for executing someone.

“Shouldn't the people have access to what's being done in their name?” he said. “If we can't stomach and can't tolerate it, then abolish it."

American culture is replete with portrayals of clergy being around execution, either advising and comforting the condemned or even occasionally giving a moral lecture from the gallows before a hanging. They have been a major part of the ongoing debate over capital punishment.

Blecker, who agrees with some criticism of how capital punishment is administered but believes it is morally appropriate in a few cases involving the worst criminals, said that idea came from the ancient Hebrews and Greeks. They reasoned that failing to adequately punish criminals polluted the population as a whole.

Hegseth's church and denomination were co-founded by archconservative pastor Doug Wilson, who supports capital punishment.

Christian denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod support the death penalty, citing Biblical passages that mandate retributive justice under an authority granted by God to punish grave crimes. Supporters in these faith traditions view the death penalty as necessary to uphold the moral order and as a just response to the taking of innocent life.

But major religious denominations including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and several mainline Protestant denominations have taken official stances opposing the death penalty. Those positions are anchored in their theology of redemption and value for the “sanctity of life.”

Many clergy members, chaplains and volunteers from faith groups provide spiritual counseling, prayer and human connection to death row inmates and their families. Faith-based groups routinely organize prayer vigils and letter-writing campaigns while lobbying legislators to commute sentences or abolish capital punishment.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, on Friday issued a statement sharply condemning the military's plans to livestream Hasan's execution.

“This decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” he said.

__ Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas; Rankin, from Richmond, Virginia, and Bharath from Los Angeles. Also contributing reporting were Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, Gene Johnson in Seattle, and Tiffany Stanley in Washington.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks before President Donald Trump at an event for Anduril Industries, Inc., at Sparrows Point Shipyard, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Sparrows Point, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - This undated photo provided by the Bell County Sheriff's Department shows former Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan. (Bell County Sheriff's Department via AP, File)

Christa Pike's attorneys Randy Spivey, center, and Luke Ihnen, right, hold a news conference after a court hearing Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn., where a judge granted their request for the Tennessee Department of Corrections to preserve all evidence related to the failed execution of Christa Pike. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, Pool)

FILE - Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment storm the grounds of the Soldier Readiness Center to apprehend a mass shooter in Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2009. (David Morris/Killeen Daily Herald via AP, File)

HEBRON, Ky. (AP) — Vice President JD Vance cast doubt Friday on whether the Pentagon will livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan in December but told reporters that if it is livestreamed, “I’m not going to be watching it.”

The Republican vice president said, “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” when asked about the plans that the Pentagon confirmed Thursday. But Vance then tried to set aside the controversy over the plans for a public execution and said Hasan’s crimes should not be forgotten.

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting spree at the military base in 2009.

“So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” Vance said.

“Now, that said, I mean, look, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it,” he added.

Vance is a convert to the Catholic Church, which has long opposed capital punishment.

President Donald Trump had endorsed Hasan's execution by firing squad during a Wednesday political event in Texas, suggesting “he deserves it.”

However, Trump was noncommittal when asked Friday whether he wanted the execution livestreamed. "Well, they’re making a determination about that,” Trump told reporters before traveling to a political event in Syracuse, New York.

But he again endorsed the firing squad as the method.

“He will be killed. He will be, through firing squad,” Trump told reporters. “I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes. And I think the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him.”

Trump did not answer when asked if he would watch a livestreamed execution.

Earlier Friday morning, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the U.S. government’s decision to livestream Hasan's execution.

“It is with shock and great sorrow that I have learned of the Department of War’s decision to publicly livestream the execution,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the conference, said in a statement. He added that the decision was “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.”

Trump approved the execution by firing squad days after a failed attempt to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection late last month pushed Tennessee’s governor to halt further executions in that state this year.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military hasn’t executed a service member by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was executed by hanging.

From Congress, lawmakers from both parties, Republicans and Democrats, widely condemned what they called the “gruesome” and “disgusting” decision to livestream the execution and implored the Pentagon to reverse course.

“Beyond disgusting,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, the Republican from North Carolina. “Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.”

The lawmakers said the authoritarian-style spectacle would send a message that runs deeply counter to American values and its system of justice, and risks putting U.S. service personnel and others overseas at risk of blowback.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, condemned Hegseth’s plan, saying there’s a reason why “almost no countries in the world engage in this barbaric practice.”

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said how the U.S. carries out its system of justice matters, and urged the Pentagon “to reverse this gruesome decision.”

Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah pointed to Rome’s bloody spectacles of the past said Hegseth’s plan to livestream the execution risks “feeding that appetite” for corrosive entertainment.

“I urge him to reconsider,” Curtis said.

This story has been corrected to show the military base's name is Fort Hood, not Ford Hood.

Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Holly Meyer in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.

Vice President JD Vance speaks to members of the media at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026 in Hebron, Ky., as he departs for a rally in Lima, Ohio. (Samuel Corum/Pool Photo via AP)