9/11 defendants may never face death penalty, families told
Government officials told families of the thousands of victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack that the suspected architect of the attack and his co-defendants may not receive the death penalty.
“The Office of the Chief Prosecutor has been negotiating and is considering entering into pre-trial agreements,” the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, read. The notice said that while no plea deal “has been finalized, and may never be finalized, it is possible that a [pre-trial agreement] in this case would remove the possibility of the death penalty.”
The AP reported that notice to the families comes 11 1/2 years after prosecutors and the defense lawyers began examining the potential resolution to the case.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others were captured between 2002 and 2003 and have been held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay since 2006. However, the trial has been hindered by repeated delays and legal disputes, including how much testimony should not be admissible due to the torture defendants underwent while in CIA custody early on.
A trial date for the five men has yet to be scheduled, and hearings have been placed on hold as a military board examines whether one of the defendants is competent to go to trial. The hearings are scheduled to resume Sept. 18.
The United States is approaching the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Conspirators from the al Qaeda Muslim militant group hijacked passenger jets, slamming into the World Trade Center’s twin towers and the Pentagon. A fourth plane — Flight 93 —slated to head to Washington instead crashed into Shanksville, Pa., after passengers and the flight crew rushed the cockpit.
The Associated Press contributed.