Twenty-five years after nearly 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 attacks, the man accused of orchestrating that morning's horror has yet to face a jury. At Guantanamo Bay, where legal proceedings have stretched across a quarter century, the wounds of the bereaved remain open — complicated by the very methods used to extract confessions from the accused. Justice, when it arrives, may come too late for those who have waited longest to witness it.
25 years on, 9/11 families await justice as trial of alleged mastermind stalls
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks; victims' families continue to suffer emotional trauma and uncertainty about justice 25 years later.
I just want them convicted. They can stay right where they are.
Mark
Why has this case taken so long? It's been 25 years.
Mimi
The torture of the defendants is at the root of it. Every legal issue circles back to how they were treated in CIA prisons before Guantanamo. A judge just threw out confessions because they weren't voluntary.
Luke
But the prosecution has other evidence, right? Phone calls, recordings?
Mimi
They do, but whether those can be used is still being fought over. The defense will file motions to suppress them.
Mark
So the torture actually weakened the government's case against them?
Mimi
Exactly. It created legal complications that have dragged the trial out for decades. Some victims' families say if the government hadn't tortured them, they'd have been convicted long ago.
Luke
What about the plea deal that almost happened?
Mimi
In early 2025, Mohammed and two others were supposed to plead guilty. No death penalty, but guaranteed convictions. Some families supported it. Others wanted a full trial.
Mark
And it fell apart?
Mimi
The government paused it at the last minute, arguing that a plea deal would deprive the American people of a public trial and the possibility of capital punishment.
Luke
So now there's no deal and no trial date that's certain?
Mimi
There's a trial date set for June 2028, but families are skeptical. They've heard that before. Some relatives are elderly and may not live to see it.
Mark
What do the families want now?
Mimi
Convictions. Most of them just want to see these men convicted before they or the defendants die. The specifics—death penalty, plea, trial—matter less than closure.
El Pulso
- A trial date of June 2028 offers the first concrete horizon in decades, but families who have already waited 25 years fear it will slip further away.
- A military judge's decision to throw out confessions obtained through CIA torture has stripped prosecutors of what they called their strongest evidence, reshuffling the entire case.
- Elderly parents and relatives of the victims are running out of time — and some families fear the defendants themselves may not survive to face a verdict.
- Victims' families are fractured over strategy: some wanted the certainty of a guilty plea, others demand a full public trial with the possibility of the death penalty, and the government's last-minute reversal on a plea deal deepened a sense of betrayal.
- Pre-trial proceedings have consumed five judges, countless hearings, and the emotional reserves of families who travel to a high-security courtroom at a military base just to watch the machinery of justice inch forward.
Twenty-five years after nearly 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 attacks, the man accused of orchestrating that morning's horror has yet to face a jury. At Guantanamo Bay, where legal proceedings have stretched across a quarter century, the wounds of the bereaved remain open — complicated by the very methods used to extract confessions from the accused. Justice, when it arrives, may come too late for those who have waited longest to witness it.
Tom Resta's brother John and his pregnant wife Sylvia were on the 92nd floor of the north tower when the planes struck on September 11, 2001. They had spent the days before painting a nursery for the child they would never bring home. A quarter century later, Resta has made four trips to Guantanamo Bay to watch pre-trial proceedings for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks. The process, he says, is "laborious and tedious" — five judges, endless hearings, and families chosen by lottery to observe through thick glass.
Last month, a trial date was finally set for June 2028, but Resta, now in his sixties, is already bracing for more delays. His father will turn 98 in November. He does not expect him — or several elderly aunts and uncles — to live long enough to see the verdict. His worry extends even to the defendants: "Hopefully all of them will still be alive by the time we get to trial."
Stephan Gerhardt, who lost his younger brother Ralph, has made six trips to Guantanamo. He still has Ralph's car and is slowly restoring it. His deepest fear is that Mohammed and his co-conspirators will die before a conviction is entered. "That would be an injustice to all the family members," he said.
The delays trace back to torture. Mohammed spent years in secret CIA prisons before arriving at Guantanamo, and days after the 2028 trial date was announced, a judge threw out confessions he made to FBI agents, ruling his CIA treatment constituted "extraordinary physical and mental abuse." International law professor Kasey McCall-Smith put it plainly: "Every single issue has been litigated through the issue of torture." Prosecutors retain other evidence — intercepted calls, secret recordings — but whether those will survive suppression motions is unresolved.
The families themselves are divided. Resta supported a 2025 plea deal that would have secured convictions without a death penalty trial. But the government paused the pleas, arguing the American public deserved a full trial and the possibility of capital punishment. Brett Eagleson, whose father died in the attacks, had wanted that trial — but now describes the situation as "a mess" and says he feels betrayed by his own government. He has stopped attending hearings altogether.
When the trial finally begins, it is expected to last roughly a year. Gerhardt says he looks forward to the day it ends — when he can stop traveling to Guantanamo and simply live with his memories of Ralph. For now, the families wait, as they have always waited, while another anniversary passes and justice remains just out of reach.
Tom Resta's brother John and his wife Sylvia were on the 92nd floor of the north tower at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Sylvia was seven months pregnant. They had spent the days before the attacks painting their unborn baby's nursery with characters from Blue's Clues, preparing for the child they had long dreamed of having. When hijackers flew planes into the towers that morning, both John and Sylvia were killed, along with nearly 3,000 others.
A quarter century later, Resta has made four trips to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay to watch pre-trial proceedings for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the attacks. Mohammed has been held at the base for 20 years without ever being tried or convicted. The proceedings, Resta said, are "laborious and tedious." Victims' families enter a lottery to attend hearings in a high-security courtroom separated from the defendants by thick glass. Five different military judges have presided over the pre-trial process, which has stretched so long that it has become its own kind of ordeal.
Last month, as the 25th anniversary approached, there was a moment of hope. A trial date was finally set for June 2028. But Resta, now in his sixties, is bracing for more delays. His father will be 98 in November. "I don't think he's expecting to see it," Resta said. He has aunts and uncles who want to witness the trial, but he does not expect them to live that long either. "Hopefully all the defendants will still be alive by the time we get to trial. That's a big worry."
Stephan Gerhardt, whose younger brother Ralph died in the attacks, has made six trips to Guantanamo. He still has Ralph's car and is trying to restore it. Recently, his parents found some of Ralph's old belongings they had been holding onto, and the emotion of seeing those small, ordinary things was overwhelming. Gerhardt's greatest fear is that Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators will die before they are convicted. "I don't want them to pass away without being convicted, because that would be an injustice to all the family members," he said.
The trial's delays trace directly to the torture of the defendants. Mohammed was held in secret CIA prisons for years before being brought to Guantanamo. Days after the June 2028 trial date was set, a military judge threw out confessions Mohammed made to FBI agents, ruling that his treatment by the CIA amounted to "extraordinary physical and mental abuse." The confessions were not voluntary and cannot be used at trial. Experts say torture has been the main reason for the case's lengthy delays. "Every single issue has been litigated through the issue of torture," said Kasey McCall-Smith, an international law professor at Edinburgh University. The defendants were subjected to years of abuse, including waterboarding and stress positions.
The prosecution still has other evidence—intercepted phone calls and secret recordings—but whether those can be used at trial is not yet guaranteed. Mohammed's defense team and others will file motions to suppress evidence. The loss of the confessions means prosecutors have lost what they described as their strongest evidence, though the full impact remains unclear.
Victims' families are divided on how to proceed. In early 2025, Mohammed and two co-defendants were due to plead guilty under a controversial deal that would spare them a death penalty trial. Resta supported the deal to secure convictions. "My philosophy is these guys are not the kind of people that should be out walking the streets, but as far as I'm concerned, they can just stay right where they are. I just want them convicted," he said. But the pleas were paused at the last minute after the government argued that allowing guilty pleas would deprive the American people of a public trial and the possibility of capital punishment. Brett Eagleson, whose father Bruce was killed in the attacks, wanted a full trial. "I believe in the judicial system and I believe that the process works," he said. He described the situation as "a mess" and said he felt "a sense of betrayal from the US government and a sense of extreme frustration." He has stopped attending the pre-trial proceedings.
When the trial finally begins, it is expected to last about a year. Gerhardt said he was looking forward to a time when it was over, when he no longer had to travel to Guantanamo and could focus on his memories of Ralph and his own life. For now, the families wait, marking another anniversary of loss while the machinery of justice moves slowly forward.
Citas Notables
After all this time, it still chokes me up. 9/11 was almost constantly on my mind.— Tom Resta, whose brother John and sister-in-law Sylvia were killed in the attacks
I don't want them to pass away without being convicted, because that would be an injustice to all the family members.— Stephan Gerhardt, whose brother Ralph died in the attacks
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Politics & Governance