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.

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