A Pentagon appeals court upheld the plea deal given to the 9/11 orchestrators, which would spare them the death penalty.
The U.S. Court of Military Commission announced the decision regarding KSM et. al. (24-001) (Mohammad along with Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi):
On December 30, 2024, the following document was filed:(26) 24-001 Moh., KSM – CMCR court denying the petition for a writ of mandamus and prohibition, finding the government (i) satisfied the first Cheney test, 542 U.S. at 380-81, because the military judge’s vacatur of the Secretary of Defense’s memorandum pertaining to future pretrial agreements was a clear abuse of discretion, but (ii) did not satisfy the second Cheney test because it had an adequate means to obtain desired relief through direct appeal, and therefore finding it (iii) unnecessary to consider the third Cheney test about appropriateness of writ under the circumstances.
The ruling means the terrorists can plead guilty and avoid the death penalty.
On August 1, we found the Defense Department reached a plea deal with the men, upsetting families who lost loved ones and survivors of the terrorist attack.
The New York Times reported part of a letter from Aaron C. Rugh, the chief prosecutor for military commissions, and his team: “In exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet.”
The deal supposedly squashed what could have been a 12-18 month trial. The government supposedly faced “the possibility of the military judge throwing out confessions that were key to the government’s case.”
The next day, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked the plea deals.
Austin sent the memo to Susan Escallier, the convening authority for military commissions, who signed the agreement about the plea deals.
“I have determined that, in light of the significance decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the above-referenced case, responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009,” wrote Austin. “Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a pre-trial agreement and reserve such authority to myself.”
But then, in November, military judge Col. Matthew N. McCall ruled the plea deals as valid, claiming Austin “acted too late and beyond the scope of his authority when he rescinded the three separate pretrial agreements.”
Austin was not in the country when the team made the plea deal.
Austin did not return until after prosecutors told the victims’ families about the plea deal.
The government appealed, leading to yesterday’s ruling.
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