No Plea Deal with Terrorists Act would ban plea deals for 9/11 co-conspirator trials, to preserve death penalty possibility
They were responsible for almost 3,000 deaths; should the possibility of their own death at U.S. government hands be foreclosed?
Context
More than 22 years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, five men held at Guantánamo Bay military prison await trial for helping plot the operation. Most prominent is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, nicknamed KSM, whom 2004’s 9/11 Commission named “the principal architect.”
(Osama bin Laden, though the official founder and head of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, wasn’t in charge of planning the attacks’ actual logistics.)
In August, military prosecutors revealed that they were considering offering the five defendants plea deals in exchange for admissions of guilt. Depending on the specific terms offered, this could possibly preclude the death penalty.
The plea deal possibility became public when the Defense Department’s Office of Military Commissions Convening Authority wrote to families of victims killed in the attacks, seeking their input. Some were strongly opposed and voiced their opposition to the media.
President Joe Biden played no part in the plan’s consideration. After he found out, though, he unilaterally overruled the prosecutors’ proposed conditions for the plea deal, which would have included ensuring the men would be kept out of solitary confinement and would be allowed to pray to Mecca communally.
Biden’s rejection still allows for the possibility of a plea deal, though — just under different conditions than the ones originally offered. So some in Congress want to prevent that possibility entirely. either under Biden or a potential future president.
What the bill does
The No Plea Deal with Terrorists Act would direct the Attorney General to refuse any plea deal for a 9/11 co-conspirator, unless it still allows for the possibility of the death penalty.
It was introduced in the House as H.R. 6479 on November 24, by Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL17).
What supporters say
Supporters argue that anybody responsible for killing 2,977 people should potentially receive an “eye for an eye” punishment themselves, for their crimes against humanity.
“More than two decades after the horrific 9/11 hijackings, the trial of the… orchestrators must deliver justice for the families of nearly 3,000 victims and the survivors,” Rep. Steube said in a press release. “Allowing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his accomplices to escape a public trial and capital punishment would represent a complete failure of this administration to hold accountable the terrorists responsible for one of the darkest days in American history.”
What opponents say
Opponents counter that plea deals would be the best way to provide closure for Americans once and for all, since evidence coerced from defendants under torture (sometimes nicknamed “enhanced interrogation”) may render guilty verdicts impossible without a guilty plea.
“Returning to pretrial purgatory will not deliver justice to the loved ones that lost the people that they cared for so much,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said on the Senate floor. “The only way to do this is by securing guilty pleas in the 9/11 cases.”
“And let’s be honest, this will not be the full measure of justice these families deserve. Sadly, this is no longer possible,” Sen. Durbin continued. “Because these families were robbed of true justice when the administration at the time decided to torture and abuse detainees in our nation’s custody and throw them into an untested legal black hole, rather than trusting America’s time-honored system of justice.”
Odds of passage
The bill has not yet attracted any cosponsors. It awaits a potential vote in the House Judiciary Committee.
Odds of passage are low in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Besides, the trials don’t even have official start dates yet. Jury selection was originally set to commence in January 2021, though after the Covid pandemic scrapped that plan, it was never rescheduled.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
This article was written by GovTrack Insider staff writer Jesse Rifkin.
Want more? Follow GovTrack by email, on Mastodon, or on Threads.
And for our “A Bill a Minute” video series — on TikTok, on Instagram, or on YouTube.
Like our analyses? Support our work on Patreon
