Overview

• The D.C. Circuit vacated a military judge’s November 2024 order reinstating plea agreements that would have exchanged guilty pleas for life sentences.
• Judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao formed the 2-1 majority upholding former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s power to rescind the deals, over Judge Robert Wilkins’s dissent.
• The July 2024 agreements required guilty pleas and public sentencing hearings in exchange for life terms without parole for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants.
• The ruling remands the case to Guantanamo Bay military commissions, clearing the way for full trials that could include the death penalty and leaving no set date.
• Key pretrial questions remain unresolved, notably the admissibility of evidence obtained through CIA interrogation techniques and the appointment of a new military judge.