Article of Interest: 9/​11 Victim’s Daughter Writes Why She Supports Plea Deals for Perpetrators

In a Washington Post op-ed, Chanel Shum, a mem­ber of September 11^th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, explains her sup­port of plea agree­ments that would end decades of legal uncer­tain­ty and sen­tence three of the accused 9/​11 defen­dants to life with­out parole. Ms. Shum was start­ing preschool when her father, See Wong Shum, was killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Describing her first time attend­ing hear­ings at Guantánamo Bay, she writes, ​“Like many, I assumed that jus­tice had been served long ago. Instead, I con­front­ed a real­i­ty tan­gled in legal red tape, end­less delays and vio­la­tions of the rule of law.” Sitting behind bul­let­proof glass to wit­ness legal pro­ceed­ings against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, she says, ​“I thought about how my family’s life had been changed for­ev­er. And yet, I felt uncom­fort­able with a jus­tice sys­tem that allowed years of indef­i­nite deten­tion with­out tri­al, which I saw as anti­thet­i­cal to both the rule of law and my core values.” 

“Although 9/​11 fam­i­ly mem­bers are a large group with diver­gent views, we can all agree that the case has tak­en far too long,” Ms. Shum writes. ​“Plea agree­ments will guar­an­tee irre­versible sen­tences for each of the detainees before 2026, as opposed to a tri­al, which could add years of appeals and still ulti­mate­ly be over­turned in fed­er­al court.” She says that the plea deals, which are cur­rent­ly in legal lim­bo, would bring final­i­ty to fam­i­lies like hers.