Durbin Presses Defense Secretary Austin On Decision To Revoke Guilty Plea Deal For Accused September 11th Plotters

SPRINGFIELD – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pressed U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin today on his decision to revoke a long-sought guilty plea deal between prosecutors and defendants accused of perpetrating the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. Secretary Austin revoked the deal two days after it was announced despite two years of negotiations, a move that frustrated victims’ families and put them through emotional whiplash.

Approved by the Convening Authority of the military commissions, the deal would have been a significant step towards justice for the victims and those who continue to mourn those lost on September 11, 2001. The deal included three of four defendants pleading guilty to all charges – including the murder of 2,976 people – on the condition that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. The accused also agreed to respond truthfully to victim family member questions regarding the attacks.

Durbin began by outlining the history of the trial proceedings, the Bush Administration’s divergence from the rule of law, and the resulting decades-long delay to deliver justice for victim family members, writing: “The best path to achieving justice would have been a fair trial in our federal courts, where hundreds of terrorism cases have been prosecuted successfully. The Bush Administration, however, made the ill-fated decision to divert from the rule of law and the values that set this nation apart from those who attacked us on 9/11. They tortured detainees, held them incommunicado in black sites, and set up the notorious prison and military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay. The decision to torture prisoners and then prosecute them in makeshift, untested military commissions denied the victims of 9/11 the trial and justice they should have received years ago. Instead, the victims and their loved ones have been waiting for more than two decades for justice, and the trial has not even started. After years of endless pretrial proceedings, it has become painfully clear that these cases are on a road to nowhere.”

In December 2021, Durbin and the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Ms. Colleen Kelly, who shared the painful experience of watching many other 9/11 family members pass away without justice or closure. Ms. Kelly’s brother, Bill Kelly, was killed in the North Tower that fateful day.

Durbin then pressed Secretary Austin on his revocation decision, writing: “We have a legal and moral obligation to deliver justice for these family members, rather than false promises that these commissions will ever deliver more. That’s why I am troubled by your decision to revoke the guilty pleas that, in the reasoned judgment of the prosecutors of the case, were the best path forward to finality and justice.”

Durbin continued, writing: “In addition to closure, this agreement would have given families the opportunity to access information and have their questions answered in ways that a trial, if it ever happens, is unlikely to provide. Moreover, these guilty pleas would almost certainly have resulted in life sentences for the defendants—the harshest sentences they are likely to receive after years of litigation and appeals.”

Finally, Durbin concluded with recommendations for the Secretary to reassess the path to securing justice for these families, writing: “Given this long and painful history, I urge you to hear from the prosecutors who determined that securing guilty pleas was the best available path to justice. I also urge you to hear from a variety of victim family members with differing views and to assess whether proceeding with the failed and broken commissions can realistically provide the families with a better outcome than pleas.”

Full text of the letter is available here.

Durbin has long been an advocate in the effort to secure a plea deal for those charged at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, as well as to close the detention center. Durbin held hearings in 2013 and in 2021 to examine the national security, fiscal, and human rights implications of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, where he also questioned witnesses about pursuing plea agreements and why that is the most viable option for bringing a prompt resolution to the cases before the military commissions.

In April 2021, Durbin led a group of 23 Senators in a letter to President Biden expressing their support for finally closing the detention facility, which he again pressedthe President to do in another letter with a group of Senators in February this year.

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