Supreme Court Won't Revive 9/11 Plea Deals, Keeping the Death Penalty Possible for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

The Supreme Court on Monday turned away bids by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and two co-defendants to revive plea deals that would have taken the death penalty off the table.

The justices denied two petitions without comment on their Oct. 19 order list: one filed by Mohammed and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, and a separate one filed by co-defendant Walid bin 'Attash. Justice Brett Kavanaugh took no part in the consideration or decision of the Mohammed petition, the order list says.

The agreements would have spared Mohammed the risk of execution in exchange for his guilty plea and a sentence of life in prison without parole, the Associated Press reported. Monday's order leaves in place a 2025 ruling by a divided federal appeals court in Washington that sided with the government and gave effect to then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's decision to withdraw from the deals.

How the 9/11 Plea Deals Fell Apart

According to the government's brief, the official overseeing the military commission accepted and signed the 9/11 plea deals for Mohammed, al-Hawsawi and bin 'Attash on July 31, 2024. Two days later, on Aug. 2, 2024, Austin announced he was taking back the authority to make such deals and withdrawing from the agreements.

Austin said a decision on the death penalty in a case as grave as the Sept. 11 attacks should only be made by the defense secretary, the AP reported.

The defendants argued that Austin acted too late because they had already begun carrying out their side of the bargain. Their lawyers pointed to a hearing on Aug. 1 and 2, 2024, when defense counsel stopped questioning a witness, as the agreements required.

The military judge in the case, Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, agreed with the defense and ruled that the withdrawal was unlawful. The U.S. Court of Military Commission Review, a panel of military judges, unanimously upheld that ruling, according to the defendants' petition.

A Divided Appeals Court

The government then went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In a split decision issued July 11, 2025, the court granted the government's request and found that Austin had the authority to withdraw from the agreements, and that the military judge had "clearly erred" in finding that the defendants had already begun to perform their part of the deals, according to the petition. The appeals court later declined to rehear the case with the full court.

In dissent, Judge Wilkins called the majority's opinion "stunning" and wrote that the government had "not come within a country mile" of proving that the military judge erred, according to the defendants' petition.

In its brief urging the justices not to take the case, the Justice Department noted that the attacks "killed 2976 people" and asked the court to leave the appeals court's ruling in place.

Relatives of Sept. 11 victims were split on the deals, the AP reported. Some said a trial is the best path to justice, while others saw the deals as the best hope for bringing the long case to a close. A group called September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and 66 individual 9/11 victim families filed a brief supporting the defendants' request.

What Comes Next

With the plea deals off the table, the capital case against the men continues at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In August, a military judge, Air Force Lt. Col. Michael A. Schrama, set a trial start date of June 5, 2028, for Mohammed and three co-defendants, the BBC reported.

Mohammed has been held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006 after his arrest in Pakistan in 2003, according to the BBC.

The Supreme Court cases are Mohammad v. United States, No. 26-13, and bin 'Atash v. United States, No. 25-1335. The court's records spell the defendants' names Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and Walid bin 'Atash.

Sources: Supreme Court of the United States, Order List, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026: https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/101926zor_q8l1.pdf ; Docket No. 26-13, Mohammad v. United States (petition, brief for the United States in opposition, amicus briefs): https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/26-13.html ; Docket No. 25-1335, bin 'Atash v. United States: https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/25-1335.html ; Associated Press via The Morning Call, "Supreme Court rejects effort to revive Khalid Sheikh Mohammed plea deal" (Oct. 19, 2026): https://www.mcall.com/2026/10/19/supreme-court-khalid-sheikh-mohammed-plea-deal/ ; BBC, "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Trial date set for alleged 9/11 mastermind": https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czezg2p50rxo