Supreme Court Rejects Plea Deal for 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Justices uphold Pentagon’s decision to reject an agreement that would have spared the accused plotter from the death penalty.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an effort to revive a plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks. 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.
The plea agreement was approved by military prosecutors and the Pentagon’s senior official for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stepped in. Austin threw out the deal in 2024, stating that a decision on the death penalty in an attack as grave as September 11 should only be made by the defense secretary.
Relatives of the September 11 victims were divided on the agreements for Mohammed and two co-defendants. Some stated that a trial is the best path to justice, while others viewed it as the best hope for bringing the long, painful case to a conclusion.
Defense attorneys had argued that Austin, who served under President Joe Biden, acted too late. However, a divided appeals court panel found Austin acted within his authority.
A trial date has been set for 2028.