WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to revive a plea deal that would have taken the death penalty off the table. The justices turned the request down on Monday, Oct. 19, according to NBC News.
The decision leaves in place a lower court ruling that threw out the agreement. It means the long-running military case at Guantánamo Bay is expected to go back to the pretrial stage.
What the deal would have done
The agreement was negotiated over two years. It was approved by military prosecutors and by the Pentagon’s senior official for Guantánamo, and it called for life sentences without parole for Mohammed and two co-defendants. It would also have required the men to answer questions from the families of victims.
Family members of those killed in the attacks were divided. Some argued that a trial was the right way to get justice and answers. Others said a plea deal would let the case be wrapped up and forgotten.
How the deal fell apart
Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin withdrew from the agreement soon after it was approved. A military judge and a military appeals court ruled against him, saying he acted too late. The government appealed to a higher court.
In July 2025, a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit voted 2-1 to throw out the deal. The panel found that Austin had the legal authority to withdraw from it, the Associated Press reported. The Biden administration filed the appeal, and the Trump administration continued it.
Who Mohammed is
Mohammed was arrested in 2003 in Pakistan. Military prosecutors filed charges against him and several co-defendants in 2008. He is accused of developing and directing the plot to fly hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A plan during the Obama administration to try the men in a civilian court in New York collapsed, so the case stayed in the military commission system.
What’s next
Without a plea deal, the case goes back to pretrial proceedings in the military commissions, which have been slowed for years by legal and logistical problems. Mohammed’s lawyers have not said what they will do next.
The justices also agreed on Monday to hear a case about race and magnet school admissions.
