Some soldiers are already seeking to escape an event Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to put on full public display.
At least six service members plan to seek religious exemptions to stay off the firing squad that will execute Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, an execution Hegseth has promised to livestream, the head of a military religious liberty group told The Washington Sun for an article on Friday.
Hasan killed 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting at the Texas base. An order signed Monday by Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle set his execution for December 3.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it,” Hegseth told Real America’s Voice on Thursday.
Michael Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the six soldiers, two Catholic and four Protestant, fear that taking part would violate the biblical commandment against murder. He expects 120 to 180 service members to file requests in the coming weeks.
“They feel they’re being used and manipulated,” Weinstein said, adding that one soldier told him, “I do not want my children or family watching me pull a trigger.”
Refusing may not be an option. Steven Lepper, a retired Air Force major general and former deputy judge advocate general, said military rules recognize objectors to all war but offer no similar exemption for a single assignment. He called the scenario “lawful but awful.”
Lepper also warned that broadcasting the execution risks turning Hasan into a martyr. “This is his dream,” Weinstein said. The Pentagon did not respond to the Sun’s questions.
Some Republicans have joined the backlash. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) wrote on X that public executions are the work of oppressive dictatorships, not America. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, told reporters Friday he doubted the livestream would happen and would not watch if it did.
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