Key facts
- Supreme Court declined to hear Mohammed's plea deal revival bid.
- Plea deal would have spared Mohammed the death penalty.
- Deal was scrapped by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
- Trial for Mohammed and co-defendants set for June 2028.
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a bid by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, to revive a 2024 agreement that would have spared him the death penalty. The justices turned away appeals by Mohammed and two co-defendants who had also signed plea agreements, upholding a lower court's ruling that validated former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's decision to void the deals. Austin, who served under former President Joe Biden, had revoked the agreements after they were accepted by a US official overseeing the Pentagon's Guantanamo war court. A military judge had initially ruled Austin lacked the authority to invalidate the deals, but this decision was later overturned. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed Austin's authority in July 2025. The trial for Mohammed and his co-defendants has been set for June 2028.