Supreme Court Refuses to Revive 9/11 Plea Deals, Keeping Death Penalty on the Table for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (TodayViralUSA) — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to revive plea agreements that would have spared Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and two co-defendants from possible execution, leaving their long-stalled military commission case on track for a trial now scheduled for 2028.

The justices turned away, without comment, two petitions — Mohammad v. United States and bin ‘Atash v. United States — that sought to reinstate the deals, according to the court’s order list. Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not take part in Mohammed’s case, SCOTUSblog reported.

A deal struck, then withdrawn

Under the agreements, reached more than two years ago after the men had spent nearly two decades at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, they would have pleaded guilty in exchange for life sentences without parole instead of facing the death penalty. Military prosecutors and the Pentagon’s senior official overseeing the Guantanamo commissions had approved the arrangement.

Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who served under President Joe Biden, threw out the deals in 2024, saying that a decision on capital punishment in a case as grave as the Sept. 11 attacks should rest with the defense secretary alone. Defense lawyers argued that Austin acted too late. A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the government, finding Austin acted within his authority and that the agreements were not binding.

Families remain divided

Mohammed is accused of developing and directing the plot in which hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, while a fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Nearly 3,000 people were killed.

Relatives of the victims have been split over the plea deals, The Associated Press reported. Some argue that only a full trial can deliver justice, while others viewed the agreements as the most realistic way to bring a painful, decades-long case to a close. The prosecution has been slowed for years by pretrial disputes, including over whether statements the defendants made after being tortured in CIA custody can be used against them.

Other orders on Monday

In the same order list, the court also declined to hear an appeal from Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic-appointed member of the National Labor Relations Board whom President Donald Trump fired in early 2025, leaving in place a D.C. Circuit ruling that the NLRB’s for-cause removal protections are unconstitutional. The justices also rejected a challenge to Chicago’s practice of seizing and selling cars over unpaid parking tickets, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing separately to voice “serious concerns” about the lower court’s decision.