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USA - Military Appeals Court Rules 9/11 Defendants Can Plead to Avoid Death Sentences
December 30, 2024: December 30, 2024 - USA. Military Appeals Court Rules 9/11 Defendants Can Plead to Avoid Death Sentences
On December 30, 2024, a military appeals court upheld a lower court ruling rejecting Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s attempt to throw out plea deals reached for three men charged in the September 11 terrorism attacks. The court affirmed Judge Colonel Matthew N. McCall’s ruling in November 2024 that the plea agreements reached in July 2024 are valid. Col. McCall stated at the time that he would proceed with the plea hearings.
The three-panel court wrote that they “agree with the military judge that the secretary did not have authority to revoke respondents’ existing [pre-trial agreements] because the respondents had started performance of the [pre-trial agreements].” This ruling allows for the plea deals to move forward and for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi to plead guilty to their involvement in the attacks to avoid the possibility of facing the death penalty. The plea hearing, originally scheduled for January 6, has been postponed until January 10, although prosecutors may ask for additional time to confer with Justice Department lawyers about possibly challenging the plea deal in a federal appeals court.
Counsel for Mr. Mohammed and his co-defendants previously reached agreements with military prosecutors after nearly two years of negotiations and publicly announced their agreement in July 2024. Just days after the announcement, Secretary Austin revoked both the agreements and the authority of Retired Brigadier General Susan Escallier, the head of the Military Commissions Convening Authority, to enter into the plea agreements and reserved that authority for himself. Secretary Austin cited the gravity of the 9/11 attacks and asserted that as Secretary of Defense, he alone should make the decision on any plea agreements that would spare the three men from facing a capital trial.
In 2008, Mr. Mohammed, Mr. bin Attash, and Mr. al-Hawsawi, in addition to two others, were charged with being involved in the 9/​11 attacks. Charges were later dropped in 2010, as the Obama Administration sought to hold trials for each man in New York. Military officials refiled charges against all five men in 2011 after the Obama Administration failed to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center and shift the cases to U.S.-based courts. The military trial for Mr. Mohammed and his co-defendants was delayed for many years as officials determined how to address the fact that the defendants were tortured while in CIA custody. Defense lawyers argue that the evidence obtained from these interrogations should be inadmissible at trial. Mr. Mohammed and his co-defendants were scheduled to go to trial in January 2021, but two judicial resignations in combination with the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the trial date again.
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/military-appeals-court-rules-9-11-defendants-can-plead-to-avoid-death-sentences (Source: DPIC, 30/12/2024)
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