A judge overseeing the 9/11 cases against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others will examine if it was legal for Lloyd Austin to rescind their plea agreements.
A military judge overseeing the cases against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two others accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks will examine if it was legal for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to rescind, a move that drew praise among some victims’ families and blowback from critics of the Pentagon’s oft-maligned judicial proceedings at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
McCall, in his memo, ordered both the prosecution and the defense to submit written briefings by Aug. 20 that explore whether it was within Austin’s authority under the laws governing the military commissions to revoke deals already agreed to by all parties. The judge also sought arguments about whether Austin is permitted to overturn the plea deals but not take on full control of the case himself. McCall’s directives were first reported by the New York Times.
Austin’s decision may succeed in heading off a wave of GOP criticism during the months leading up to November’s presidential election, but it has set off a chain reaction likely to outlast his time atop the Pentagon, said Eugene Fidell, a military justice expert at Yale Law School. Fidell assessed that Austin’s termination of the plea deals after they were approved is “illegal.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that what really seems to be motivating Secretary Austin was a desire to keep the death penalty in play,” Glazier said, characterizing the shake-up as a signal of intent to the case’s prosecutors, judge and any military officers who may be assigned to the trial panel and tasked with deciding its outcome. All of them, as Defense Department personnel, fall under Austin’s supervision in the military chain of command.
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