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Appeals court tosses 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed plea deal
WASHINGTON, D.C., JUL 11 – The court ruled Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had authority to revoke the plea deal sparing execution, extending the decades-long military prosecution of 9/11 suspects.
- On Friday, a divided federal appellate panel dismissed a plea agreement involving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged planner of the 2001 al-Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
- The court ruling came after an appeal initially launched during the Biden administration and carried on into the Trump administration, stemming from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s revocation of the agreement based on his view that decisions regarding the death penalty should rest with his office.
- The two-year-negotiated agreement, approved a year ago by military prosecutors and Pentagon officials, would have allowed Mohammed and two co-defendants to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences without parole.
- The court panel voted 2-1 that Austin acted within his legal authority and faulted the military judge's earlier ruling, while dissenting Judge Robert Wilkins said the government failed to prove the military judge erred.
- The ruling indicates that the lengthy and difficult military prosecution to hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed accountable for orchestrating one of the deadliest attacks on the U.S. is far from reaching a swift conclusion.
395 Articles
395 Articles
‘NO DEATH PENALTY’ plea deal for 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, thankfully thrown out by federal appeals court
On Friday, July 11, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. tossed out a plea deal that would have spared the lives of the alleged masterminds behind al-Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. Under the plea deal, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants would have received life sentences without the possibility […]
Appeals Court throws out 9/11 Guantánamo plea deals, clears path for death penalty cases
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on Friday threw out plea agreements for three Guantánamo detainees accused of conspiring in the September 11 attacks, clearing the way for the government to pursue the death penalty more than two decades after the tragedy that claimed nearly 3,000 lives. The 2–1 ruling holds that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III lawfully exercised his authority when, in August 2023, he rescinded plea deals that had…
Case against 9/11 suspect is in limbo after court nixes plea deal
NEW YORK — The United States’ long legal case against accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed remains in limbo after an appeals court last week scrapped a plea deal that the government had negotiated but later withdrawn. Read more...
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