Sept. 11 families group leader cheers restoration of death penalty option in 9/11 prosecutions

Terry Strada, national chair of 9/11 Families United, speaks outside Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, shortly after plea deals were announced for three men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks. (AP Photo/Lawrence Neumeister)

The head of a group of family members of victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks said Saturday that she's hearing nearly unanimous praise of the U.S. defence secretary's nullification of plea deals for the accused 9/11 mastermind and two others that would have removed the death penalty as a possibility.

The American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, said it plans to challenge the reversal in court, citing it in a statement Saturday as a "rash act" that "violates the law."

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Terry Strada, national chair of the group 9/11 Families United, said she was shocked by the announcement late Friday that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was rejecting a plea deal reached just days ago and was restoring the death penalty as an option in the cases.

He wrote that authority in the matter ultimately rested with him.

"Nobody saw this coming," Strada said.

But she quickly added that it was the right thing to do.

"These men deserve no mercy," Strada said. "They certainly didn't show any mercy to my husband or the other 2,976 who died in the attacks."

She said dozens of individuals from her group who she has communicated with since Friday night have been unanimous.

"Everybody I've talked to wants them put to death because that's the punishment that fits the crime and the message the United States needs to send to terrorists around the world: We will hold you accountable and exercise the death penalty," Strada said.

And she said a large international prisoner swap that occurred Thursday was a reminder of the need to ensure that nobody behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that turned hijacked planes into missiles that tore through 110-story twin World Trade Center towers and smashed into the Pentagon are ever set free.

Strada has said as recently as several days ago that some of the 10,000 family members of those killed in the attacks are divided over whether the death penalty is appropriate.

Austin's action came two days after the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, announced that the official appointed to oversee the war court had approved plea deals with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accused accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.

In a release Saturday, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said the civil rights group plans to sue to win a reversal of Austin's move.

"It's stunning that Secretary Austin betrayed 9/11 family members seeking judicial finality while recklessly setting aside the judgment of his own prosecutors and the Convening Authority, who are actually steeped in the 9/11 case. Politics and command influence should play no role in this legal proceeding," Romero said.

He said any death penalty finding would not be upheld on appeal because of torture experienced by those who were captured after the 9/11 attacks and because military commissions are "inherently unjust."

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"After over 20 years, it's time for our government to accept the defendants' guilty pleas as the best solution in a terrible circumstance. The 9/11 families and the American people deserve closure and adherence to due process principles that are the bedrock of our democracy," Romero said.

Families of those killed in the al-Qaida attacks were told in letters that the plea agreement stipulated that the men would serve up to life sentences but would not face death.

Strada said family members feared that if they were placed in U.S. prisons, "any future administration could commute their sentence or use them in a possible prison swap."

"I'm not a ghoul that I want them put to death," Strada added. "I want them put them to death because I don't want them to have a voice, ever."