Hearing on a petition to enable the alleged mastermind of 9/11 terror attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed The case to avoid the death penalty will not proceed Friday, as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decided to pause proceedings Thursday to allow the court to hear full briefing and arguments in the case on an expedited basis.
The court did not rule on whether Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had the power to overturn the plea agreements with Mohammed and other defendants, but said it needed more time to make that decision.
The US government had filed a petition motion Earlier this week a demand was made to block a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from accepting plea agreements offered to three men accused of planning the September 11, 2001 attacks, including Mohammed.
According to the proposal, based on plea agreements reached over the summer, which are still under seal, the three defendants would plead guilty to the seven charges against them for their alleged roles in the terrorist attacks, in exchange for being allowed to escape death row. Fine. The charges include murder, conspiracy and terrorism as well as an eighth charge of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm.
Government lawyers also asked the appeals court to put a stay on proceedings – including a hearing on Mohammed's plea on Friday – while the request was considered.
Family members who traveled to Guantanamo Bay are disappointed that petition proceedings will not proceed on Friday. Eight of them were talking to journalists when the court imposed an administrative ban. All eight supported the plea agreements, although they acknowledged that other victims' families did not.
Stephen Gerhardt, whose brother Ralph died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, said, “I think that by delaying this for the next administration, the Biden administration failed the families of 9/11. “There was also a political agenda. We can't pin our hopes on the next administration to solve this for us.”
Deborah Garcia, whose husband David also died in the World Trade Center, said she expected such a verdict to be final, dictated by plea agreements, “because if these people die (now), they Innocents die.”
Garcia is here with her son, Dylan, who had his 28th birthday on Thursday and was just 4 when his father died.
“I felt like I failed my husband that he was at the Trade Center, and I think that adds to my sense of failure,” Deborah Garcia said. “I still can't bring him to justice.”
Claire Gates tears up while talking about her mother, Carol Freund, who has been visiting Guantanamo Bay since 2013. Gates's uncle, Peter Freund, was a firefighter and the brother of Carol Freund.
Gates said of the visit with his mother, “I see her in a lot of pain all the time, and this was the first time I came here to see it for myself. And it was supposed to be a healing time for us. ” , and we will board that plane with that deep sense of pain that never seems to exist – that has no end.”
He further said that he hoped the trip would bring his mother “some sense of resolution after so many years”. He said he was happy to be there to support Freund, but “this is not the end of this journey that I thought we would experience together.”
Immediately after reaching the plea agreement, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin tried to quash them, arguing in a memorandum that “in light of the importance” of the decision, he alone should have the power to approve plea deals, rather than a subordinate authority accepting the deal.
The judge in the 9/11 case and then a military appeals court ruled against Austin, saying he had ruled too late. Austin has since reiterated that he still feels he should be the one who decides on the 9/11 petition. Austin was asked again about his decision to cancel the deals during a visit to Germany on Thursday.
He responded, “I have stated where I stand on this matter and I have not changed.” “We are in the process of appealing that decision, and since we are appealing, I have no comment.”
There are two other defendants in the case, but one has not negotiated a plea agreement, and the other has been ruled mentally unfit to stand trial.