As the 25th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks approaches, families of victims say the pain endures while justice remains elusive, with the trial of alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still not under way. Tom Resta, whose brother John and heavily pregnant sister-in-law Sylvia died in the North Tower, described 9/11 as "almost constantly" on his mind, while Mohammed has spent 20 years in detention at Guantanamo Bay without conviction. The prolonged delay matters because it raises doubts about whether elderly relatives, or even the defendants themselves, will live to see the case concluded, leaving families in a prolonged state of unresolved grief.

Nearly 3,000 people died when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, with a fourth plane crashing in Pennsylvania after passengers intervened. Pre-trial proceedings against Mohammed and his co-defendants have dragged on so long that five different military judges have presided over them, though a trial date has now been set for June 2028. Relatives such as Resta, whose 98-year-old father may not live to see it, and Stephan Gerhardt, who lost his brother Ralph, say their greatest fear is that the accused could die before being convicted, denying families a sense of justice.