WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an attempt by alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants to revive a plea agreement that had been negotiated with military prosecutors, according to reporting by Accredited Wire Reports.
The justices declined to take up an appeal challenging the Pentagon's decision to throw out the previously arranged agreements, leaving intact the government's move to scrap the pre-trial deals for the accused conspirators.
Pentagon Decision Upheld
The action by the nation's highest court upholds the Pentagon's authority to revoke the plea arrangements that had been drafted for the Sept. 11 defendants. Under the original negotiations, the agreements would have resolved the long-running capital cases without proceeding to a death penalty trial.
However, Pentagon leadership moved to throw out the agreements shortly after they were announced. Defense counsel for Mohammed and fellow defendants sought judicial intervention to enforce the original terms, but the Supreme Court snubbed the bid, refusing to review the military justice system's revocation.
Long-Running Military Prosecution
Mohammed and other alleged conspirators have been detained for years at the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facing charges connected to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The legal proceedings in the military commissions have faced decades of procedural disputes, pre-trial motions, and logistical delays.
With the Supreme Court turning away the defendants' petition, the legal framework that scuttled the pre-trial deals remains firmly in place. The decision eliminates a key legal avenue for the defendants to avoid trial through the previously drafted arrangements, returning the focus of the proceedings back to the military commissions process.
