News Roundup

After a plea deal between 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the U.S. government was declared void by order of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a military judge has now ruled that the plea agreement is valid, the AP reports. The plea agreement calls for a sentence of life imprisonment for Mohammed and his two-codefendants. The Defense Secretary had declared that the deal could not be struck without his approval and that the decades-old proceedings should continue through to trial and possible death sentences. Some families of 9/11 victims and lawmakers also opposed the plea deal. However, the military judge has ruled that it is too late to strike the deal because it was negotiated with proper government authorization and the top official at Guantanamo approved it. Read on for more criminal law news. Reforms rolled back in California. This week, Californians voted in favor of a measure to roll back certain criminal justice reforms enacted in 2014. Proposition 36 reclassifies certain misdemeanor theft offenses as felonies, requires a warning about the potential to be charged with murder for selling or distributing drugs, and creates a new “treatment-mandated felony.” Analysts anticipate an increase in the state prison population of about 2,000, as well as increases in criminal justice costs associated with handling the new felony cases. On the flipside, the measure will result in reduced spending on mental health and drug treatment, school dropout prevention, and victim services. Supporters of the proposition point to a high incidence of “smash-and-grab” crimes at various [...]