9/11 victims' families, recovery workers angry at plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Dina Amatuccio of East Northport struggled to balance her emotions Thursday after learning that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, had agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, taking the death penalty off the table.

Amatuccio, whose father, 41-year-old Joseph Amatuccio, a Port Authority manager of the World Trade Center, was last seen alive in the lobby of the south tower, said she had complicated feelings about the deal.

"Him receiving the death penalty will not bring my father back, or any of the people lost that day," Amatuccio said. "I hope he rots in prison. However, I hate the fact that more money will be used to keep him fed and alive."

She added: "People like him don’t change and I hope that he doesn’t have the availability to conspire against us from inside wherever they are keeping him."

On Thursday, Long Islanders who lost loved ones in the nation's worst terror attack — along with those who responded to Ground Zero, often at risk to their long-term health — reacted with anger and disappointment that Mohammed and two alleged co-conspirators would not face trial for their actions.

Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi are expected to enter guilty pleas during a military commission hearing in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as soon as next week, the Defense Department said. 

Lawyers for the accused terrorists requested the men receive life sentences in exchange for the guilty pleas, according to letters from the federal government received by relatives of some of the nearly 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11. Pentagon officials have declined to release the full terms of the plea bargains.

The three men were charged jointly and arraigned in 2008, then a second time in 2012, in connection with their roles in the attacks. They were transferred to the U.S. detention center in Guantánamo Bay in 2006, with their cases held up by legal proceedings for years.

The use of torture has proved one of the most formidable obstacles in U.S. efforts to try the men in the military commission at Guantánamo, owing to the inadmissibility of evidence linked to abuse. Torture has accounted for much of the delay of the proceedings, along with the courtroom's location a plane ride away from the United States.

Retired NYPD Officer John DeVito of Bellport spent weeks working on the smoldering rubble of Ground Zero and was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2020, an ailment doctors linked to his exposure to toxins floating in the air of lower Manhattan after the attacks.

"I think it’s outrageous that [Mohammed] is being spared after all of the pain and destruction he has caused," said DeVito, who is in remission. "There was absolutely no reason to cut a plea bargain with him as it’s been about 23 years now. It just shows in the end he’s a coward."

But Victoria Burton of St. Albans, whose late husband, retired FDNY Fire Marshal Michael Hankins, spent months at Ground Zero helping recover bodies and equipment, said she's against the death penalty, even for Mohammed, "because I don't think that it is effective."

John Feal, a demolition supervisor from Nesconset who lost half his left foot after working to clear rubble during the rescue effort, said while he is usually against the death penalty, he believes Mohammed and the other co-conspirators deserved that punishment.

"So many people have died waiting for justice and will never see it," said Feal, who leads the Nesconset-based FealGood Foundation, which advocates for Ground Zero first responders. "And [others] are going to live the rest of their lives with the agony and pain of these three men living in a jail cell instead of a grave . . . it's an insult to a wound that hasn't closed. And that wound has been reopened again."

Terry Strada, who lost her husband Tom in the attacks and is national chairperson of 9/11 Families United, a coalition of Sept. 11 families and survivors, said she was "shocked and disappointed" to learn of the plea deal. The announcement, she said, came late Wednesday while she was in a Manhattan courtroom with families of 9/11 victims who are seeking to hold Saudi Arabia legally accountable for the attacks.

"It felt like a sucker punch," said Strada, a former Westbury resident. "Taking the death penalty off the table is what they wanted. So it's a victory for them. And I don't think we should be giving them any victories."

With The Associated Press

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.