The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to consider appeals seeking to revive a plea agreement for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two other men accused of orchestrating the September 11 attacks, effectively removing a significant legal obstacle to a possible death penalty trial. The order was issued without explanation or noted dissent, though Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh did not participate in the decision.

The plea deal, initially authorized in 2024 by a senior Defense Department official, would have spared the defendants from facing the death penalty in exchange for their agreement to plead guilty and forgo the right to appeal. However, in the days following the announcement, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III revoked the agreement amid public and political backlash, reinstating the pursuit of capital punishment.

A military judge had earlier ruled that the plea agreements could proceed, but this was overruled by a federal appeals court that upheld the defense secretary’s decision to withdraw the deal. The three men—Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has been held at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base since 2006 and is alleged to be the mastermind of the attacks, along with co-conspirators Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash—then appealed to the Supreme Court to intervene.

Defense attorneys argued that the case raises issues of “immense national importance” and highlighted procedural inconsistencies across appeals courts, contending that the Supreme Court should have the final authority on the matter. They emphasized the high stakes involved, noting the prospect of a death sentence should the case proceed to trial.

Conversely, the government, represented by Solicitor General D. John Sauer, urged the justices to reject the petition. Sauer acknowledged the lengthy nature of the prosecutions and noted divisions within victims’ families regarding the death penalty, but maintained that the case touches on the broader interests of the nation. He argued that the appeals court had correctly addressed what it deemed “egregious legal errors” by the military judge and that Supreme Court intervention was unnecessary at this stage.

The trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the other accused is scheduled to begin on June 5, 2028, with pretrial proceedings expected to continue in the meantime. One of the enduring challenges in the case centers on the admissibility of confessions obtained during interrogations at Guantánamo Bay in 2007 and 2008, which defense lawyers assert were compromised by the use of torture. The Supreme Court’s refusal to take up the case signals a move toward advancing the trial process, but contentious legal and human rights questions remain unresolved.