The justices rejected a request from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two others accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, clearing the way for a potential death penalty trial.

The government is now 0-5 in its efforts to admit the so-called clean team confessions to the capital cases at Guantánamo Bay.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Prosecutors have long considered the defendants’ admissions during interrogations in 2007 to be their best evidence.

© Todd Heisler/The New York Times