Plea would have spared Mohammed execution in exchange for guilty plea
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to revive a plea agreement for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, The Guardian reported. The agreement would have spared Mohammed the risk of execution in exchange for his guilty plea and a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Mohammed is accused of developing and directing the plot to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another of the hijacked planes crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Twenty-five years after the attacks, the case remains in pre-trial proceedings at the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The plea agreement was originally approved by military prosecutors and the Pentagon’s senior official for Guantánamo before Austin, then the defense secretary, voided the deal in 2024. Austin said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty in an attack as grave as September 11 should be made only by the defense secretary.
Defense attorneys argued that Austin, who served under Biden, had acted too late. A divided federal appeals court panel found Austin acted within his authority. The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the matter leaves that ruling in place.
Relatives of September 11 victims were split on the plea agreements for Mohammed and two co-defendants, The Guardian reported. Some said a trial was the best path to justice, while others described the plea deal as their best hope for bringing the long, painful case to a conclusion.
A military trial date has been set for 2028.