Curtis applauds decision not to livestream execution of Fort Hood shooter

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, praised the announcement Thursday from President Donald Trump that the execution of the Fort Hood gunman would no longer be livestreamed.

"This is the right move, both for the loved ones of the victims and for the country," he said in a statement.

The senator was one of several Republicans to push back on last week's announcement that the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan would be publicly streamed, urging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "reconsider."

The Pentagon had planned to execute Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 and wounded dozens more in a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, publicly on Dec. 3 in what would have been the first legally sanctioned public execution in the nation in 90 years.

"A civilization erodes when it cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment," Curtis said last week. "Secretary Hegseth's plan to livestream the Fort Hood execution risks feeding that appetite. The victims deserve justice administered with solemnity. Broadcasting a death diminishes us and is not an effective deterrent."

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson also weighed in last week, calling the plan "deeply disturbing."

Hegseth had argued that the public nature of the execution would serve as a deterrent to future crimes.

"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public," he said last week. "Because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things."

Several other Republicans had pushed back on the proposal, and Vice President JD Vance expressed doubts about it last week.

Trump announced Thursday that the execution would proceed in December as planned, but it would not be streamed.

"He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed," he wrote. "That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose. They deserve to witness JUSTICE!"

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