Potential plea deal may allow 9/11 suspects to avoid death penalty

The Pentagon and FBI advised families of some of the thousands killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks that the five suspects facing trial for the 9/11 attacks may avoid the death penalty. According to an Aug. 1 letter obtained by a variety of news outlets, a plea deal is under consideration to end years of prosecution that has been troubled by repeated delays and legal disputes.

“The Office of the Chief Prosecutor has been negotiating and is considering entering into pre-trial agreements,” the letter said. It told the families that while no plea agreement “has been finalized, and may never be finalized, it is possible that a [pre-trial agreement] in this case would remove the possibility of the death penalty.”

The letter came a 1 1/2 years after military prosecutors and defense lawyers began exploring a negotiated resolution to the case. Some of the legal disputes that have held the case back include the legal ramifications of the torture the 9/11 suspects initially underwent while in CIA custody.

Some relatives of the nearly 3,000 people killed outright in the 9/11 terror attacks expressed outrage over the prospect of ending the case short of the suspects getting the death penalty. Jim Riches, who lost his firefighter son Jimmy in 9/11, said he laughed bitterly when he opened the letter.

“How can you have any faith in it?” Riches asked, adding that while the letter “gives us a little hope” of movement in the case, justice still seems far off. “No matter how many letters they send, until I see it, I won’t believe it.”

In the letter, military prosecutors pledged to take victims’ families’ views into consideration and present them to the military authorities. Those authorities would make the final decision on accepting any plea agreement.