Judges on a federal appeals court tossed a plea agreement that would have allowed terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to avoid the death penalty.
The deal was negotiated over two years. The 2-1 decision reverses a previous ruling that said former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin could not withdraw deals in progress.
“The secretary of defense indisputably had legal authority to withdraw from the agreements; the plain and unambiguous text of the pretrial agreements shows that no performance of promises had begun; the government has no adequate alternative remedy to vindicate its interests; and the equities make issuance of the writs appropriate,” the judges wrote.
“Having properly assumed the convening authority, the Secretary determined that the ‘families and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out.’ The Secretary acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment,” the ruling added. The judges further concluded that a military judge previously issued a decision with “clear and indisputable errors.”
In January, the appeals court agreed to pause the plea proceedings in response to a motion filed by the Department of Defense.
“Respondents are charged with perpetrating the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history—the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” the DOD wrote at the time. “The military commission judge intends to enforce pretrial plea agreements that will deprive the government and the American people of a public trial as to the respondents’ guilt and the possibility of capital punishment, despite the fact that the Secretary of Defense has lawfully withdrawn those agreements.”
