A divided federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Friday tossed out an agreement that would have allowed 9/11 terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to plead guilty in another failed effort to end a years-long legal saga surrounding the military prosecution of men held at Guantánamo Bay.
The 2-1 D.C. Circuit appeals court decision upheld then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to undo the plea deal approved by military lawyers and senior Pentagon staff.
The deal would have carried life without parole sentences for Mohammed and two co-defendants, potentially taking capital punishment off the table.
Mohammed, a Pakistani national, is accused of spearheading the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and another commercial jetliner that crashed in Pennsylvania.
Austin said a decision on whether to take the death penalty off the table could only be made by the Secretary of Defense.
However, legal concerns stemmed from whether the original plea deal was legally binding and whether Austin waited too long to get it dismissed.
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Author: Marty Kaufmann
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