Trial for Men Charged With Plotting 9/11 Attacks Is Set for 2021 – The New York Times

They were arraigned in this case on May 5, 2012.

Since then, the judges have held more than 30 pretrial hearing sessions to work out questions of law and evidence that would apply at the trial by military commission.

Another issue yet to be resolved is what protocols will be used to conduct magnetic resonance imaging of the five defendants to see if they suffered brain or other physical damage that defense lawyers might use to argue against their execution, if they are convicted. The judge gave the prosecutors until Oct. 1 to establish those.

Selection of the jury — 12 members and four alternate members — is expected to last months, with American military officers shuttled by air to and from the base in groups, because of cramped and limited housing at Guantánamo. Under the current timetable, that would mean that the prosecution’s presentation of the case itself could begin as the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack approaches.

Because it is a national security case, the hearings are held in a special courtroom that lets people sitting behind the court in a spectator’s gallery watch live but hear the proceedings on a 40-second delay. Some of the tens of thousands of people who are victims or relatives of the Sept. 11 victims, including police officers and firefighters, have also been able to watch the proceedings through video broadcast to military bases in New York, Massachusetts and Maryland.

The war court itself is a hybrid of federal and military courts. Prosecutors work for both the Justice and Defense Departments. The five suspects have both military and civilian lawyers who are paid by the Pentagon.

Besides conspiracy, the men are charged with committing murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians and terrorism. Conviction can carry the death penalty, with the secretary of defense determining the method of execution.