The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, October 19, rejected an appeal by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, leaving him facing a possible death sentence.
The decision leaves in place a lower court ruling that allowed former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to withdraw a plea agreement under which Mohammed would have pleaded guilty in exchange for life imprisonment without parole.
The Supreme Court provided no explanation for its decision. Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not participate.
Court Upholds Withdrawal of Plea Deal
The plea agreement was approved in July 2024 by a Pentagon official overseeing military commissions at Guantanamo Bay. Austin withdrew the agreement two days later, arguing that decisions of such importance should be made by the defense secretary.
Defense attorneys challenged the withdrawal, and both a military judge and a military appeals court initially ruled that the agreements remained valid. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed those decisions in July 2025, upholding Austin’s authority to cancel the deals.
The Supreme Court also rejected appeals involving co-defendants Mustafa al Hawsawi and Walid bin ’Atash, whose plea agreements would similarly have excluded the death penalty.
Trial Scheduled for June 2028
Mohammed and his co-defendants are being prosecuted before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Their trial is scheduled to begin in June 2028, nearly 27 years after the attacks.
Mohammed is accused of organizing the September 11, 2001, attacks, in which hijacked aircraft struck the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington. A fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed.
Relatives of the victims have expressed differing views on the prosecution. Some support proceeding to trial, while others favored the plea agreements as a way to conclude the lengthy legal proceedings.
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