A retired general who approved the death sentence for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist convicted of a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas.
An archbishop who ministers to Catholics in the Defense Department.
A sergeant who was shot seven times in the rampage, including once in his face.
All of them opposed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the execution of Mr. Hasan, who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others. Their reasons varied, but their conclusions were similar.
On Thursday, President Trump said the execution would not be broadcast. “Many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” he wrote on social media. “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”
It is a rebuke of his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who had said the killing of Mr. Hasan would be made public “because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
Mr. Hegseth’s decision, however, violated Army regulations that prohibit anyone younger than 18 from witnessing an execution.
If all else goes to plan, Mr. Hasan will be shot to death on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, the Army post where the massacre took place.
The General
Sean B. MacFarland, who served as commanding general of Fort Hood five years after the shooting, approved the death sentence for Mr. Hasan following his conviction by courts-martial.
He said that Mr. Hasan deserved to die for his crimes. But the general said he was against streaming the execution.
“By livestreaming this at a U.S. Army installation in the United States of America, it seems to me that not only are we inspiring or encouraging future enemy combatants, but we’re also making Fort Hood a potential target for retribution in the future,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
General MacFarland, who commanded Fort Hood from 2014 to 2017, said there was an important distinction.
“We are not executing an enemy combatant,” he said. “We are executing a member of our own Army who betrayed his oath as an American soldier and his own oath as a physician. And he was tried and he will be executed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That’s completely different than the Geneva Conventions and the laws of armed conflict that govern the treatment of enemy prisoners of war.”
“But I don’t think that our future opponents around the world are going to make that fine distinction, and that’s a real source of concern for me,” he added.
The Archbishop
The plan to execute Major Hasan in public also drew rare criticism from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, which oversees all Catholic priests serving in uniform as military chaplains, and ministers to members of the church serving in the Defense Department.
On Monday, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, who leads the archdiocese, issued a public statement that reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to capital punishment in all circumstances. He added that streaming such an act was a violation of Mr. Hasan’s innate dignity as a human being.
“In general, I avoid making public statements about public policy,” Archbishop Broglio said on Wednesday. “However, I felt this was such an egregious affront to the dignity of the human person that I really had to take a public stance — as I did, of course, also when they approved other anti-life measures under the previous administration permitting abortions on military medical facilities.”
“I think it would be disastrous for young children” to view the execution, the archbishop said. “I mean, I realize we live in a violent society, but to see something like that orchestrated before their very eyes, I think it would be detrimental.”
In his statement on Monday, Archbishop Broglio issued a call that Catholics be excused from participating in Mr. Hasan’s execution.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Hegseth declined to comment on the archbishop’s statement.
The Survivor
On that day in 2009, Sgt. Alonzo M. Lunsford Jr., a combat medic, was working in an office that assessed the physical and emotional fitness of Fort Hood soldiers deploying to or returning home from combat deployments.
Major Hasan shot him just above his left eye, then returned to shoot him six times in his torso.
In an interview, Sergeant Lunsford, who had been promoted to staff sergeant before his medical retirement from the military, said those additional gunshot wounds resulted in devastating internal injuries.
Sergeant Lunsford believes that Major Hasan should die for his crimes and plans to attend his execution. But he was against broadcasting it.
“The thing about it is that I don’t think that it should be displayed to kids and adolescents,” he said on Wednesday. “And the other thing is, I don’t think this should be displayed like it’s a damn spectacle, like it’s a pay-per-view event where we’re going to have a tailgate for his execution.”
“We’re better than that as a country, and as a people — we don’t have public executions. Those days are long gone,” he added.
In conversations with other surviving victims, Sergeant Lunsford said that “for the most part, they just wanted it to be over with and they want their privacy to be respected. They don’t want a spectacle to be made of this, because the true heroes are the ones who are no longer here.”
The Retirees
On Wednesday, dozens of retired admirals and generals and other officers published an open letter opposing Mr. Hegseth’s plan to broadcast the execution.
“Livestreaming this execution would clearly violate the basic human dignity of the condemned prisoner,” they wrote. “It turns what should be the solemn and grave punishment of a member of our society for committing the most serious crimes into a carnival for the enjoyment of voyeurs and spectators.”
“This type of exploitative broadcasting — that debases human dignity — will taint the honor of the military that employs it, and a nation that allows it,” they added.
Congress
Some members of Congress also welcomed Mr. Trump’s decision to cancel the livestream.
They included Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Mr. Reed, who graduated from West Point and served in the Army, said in a statement that Mr. Trump “was right to backtrack and ultimately reached the correct conclusion.”
But the senator added: “Still, this episode highlights the impulsive and dysfunctional civilian leadership from the White House and U.S. Department of Defense.”
A few Republicans had also criticized the plan.
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is retiring and has become increasingly critical of the Trump administration, said the decision to broadcast the execution was “beyond disgusting.”
He likened it to the actions of some of the United States’ most brutal adversaries.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
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