WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s bid to revive a controversial 2024 plea agreement that would have removed the possibility of a death sentence for his alleged role as the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Mohammed, widely known as “KSM,” is now scheduled to stand trial before a military commission on June 5, 2028. He has spent more than 20 years in custody at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The justices did not note any dissents in turning away the case. Justice Brett Kavanaugh recused himself because he was working in the George W. Bush White House counsel’s office when Mohammed was captured in 2003.
On July 31, 2024, Mohammed and co-defendants Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi reached an agreement with the Office of Military Commissions. Under the deal, the three men would plead guilty and receive life sentences without parole for their roles in attacks that killed 2,977 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The agreement triggered a national backlash. Two days later, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin withdrew it, arguing that only the Pentagon chief had the authority to approve such a resolution.
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A divided panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Austin’s decision last year, making the Supreme Court Mohammed’s final avenue for challenging the cancellation of the plea deal.
The long-delayed case has been stalled for nearly 25 years, largely because of continuing battles over whether prosecutors may use evidence obtained from the three defendants during CIA “enhanced interrogation” sessions.
Those disputes resulted in Mohammed and four other defendants being charged in 2008, then charged again four years later.
In August, a military judge most recently excluded statements Mohammed gave to the FBI in 2007, four years after his capture. The judge ruled that the statements were not made voluntarily.
A bipartisan commission report released in 2004 identified Mohammed as the “principal architect of the 9/11 attacks.” He faces 2,977 counts of murder, terrorism and violations of the law of war, along with other charges.
“I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z,” Mohammed was quoted as saying during a U.S. military hearing in 2007. He also said he was “very sorry” that children died in the attacks while insisting, “I don’t like to kill people.”