ACLU Statement on Defense Secretary Austin Revoking Plea Deal for 9/11 Defendants

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Friday overruled prosecutors and Brig. General Susan Escallier, the Guantánamo military commission’s convening authority, revoking a plea agreement reached earlier this week with ACLU client Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. In exchange for a guilty plea, the U.S. government had agreed to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.

The following is a statement from Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union:

“By revoking a signed plea agreement, Secretary Austin has prevented a guilty verdict in the most important criminal case of the 21st century. This rash act also violates the law, and we will challenge it in court.

“It's stunning that Secretary Austin betrayed 9/11 family members seeking judicial finality while recklessly setting aside the judgment of his own prosecutors and the Convening Authority, who are actually steeped in the 9/11 case. Politics and command influence should play no role in this legal proceeding. Yet, Secretary Austin dishonored an agreement reached after years of hard work and painstaking consultation by all the parties involved.

“It's also more than a little ironic that Secretary Austin’s gung-ho insistence on executing the 9/11 defendants directly contradicts the Biden Administration’s public commitment to ending the death penalty.

“The United States has spent decades and tens of millions of dollars trying to secure a death sentence that cannot be upheld in the face of the government’s torture.

“In the unlikely event that years from now the 9/11 case proceeds to trial, any military commission verdict the government secures will collapse on appeal once it reaches the federal courts. No federal court will uphold a death penalty conviction of tortured defendants in the inherently unjust military commissions.

“After over 20 years, it’s time for our government to accept the defendants’ guilty pleas as the best solution in a terrible circumstance. The 9/11 families and the American people deserve closure and adherence to due process principles that are the bedrock of our democracy.”