The Supreme Court denied a petition for review in the challenge to the cancellation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad’s 9/11 plea agreement. The Court’s docket records the petition as denied on Oct. 19. It did not issue a written opinion explaining the decision.

A denial of certiorari leaves the D.C. Circuit’s ruling in place. It does not mean the justices considered and endorsed the appeals court’s reasoning. The Supreme Court says many cases end through brief orders that deny review without comment.

How the plea agreement was cancelled

The agreement would have required Mohammad to plead guilty and serve life in prison without parole, sparing him the risk of execution. Military prosecutors and the Pentagon’s senior official for Guantanamo had approved it before then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin set it aside in 2024.

Austin said the decision over whether to pursue the death penalty in a case as grave as the Sept. 11 attacks should rest with the defense secretary. Mohammad’s lawyers argued he acted too late. A divided appeals-court panel ruled that Austin had authority to cancel the agreement.

The Supreme Court’s Oct. 19 action was the next step the defendants sought in that dispute. The official docket identifies the case as Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, et al. v. United States, No. 26-13, linked to an earlier petition, No. 25-1335. The Court’s order list places it under the D.C. Circuit.

What happens now

The denial means this petition did not restore the plea deal. AP reports that a trial date has been set for 2028. The Supreme Court docket gives no further explanation, so the order should be read as a refusal to review the case, not a decision about guilt or a new ruling on the plea agreement’s legality.