Ex-Death Row Inmates Commuted by Biden Try to Avoid Supermax (1)

Inmates whose death sentences were commuted to life sentences without parole under the Biden administration claim that an executive order issued by President Donald Trump that intensifies the severity of their sentences is unconstitutional.

The executive order and a memo by Attorney General Pamela Bondi direct the Bureau of Prisons to ensure that the 37 inmates whose sentences were commuted are “incarcerated indefinitely in the most oppressive conditions in the entire federal prison system,” the inmates say. The complaint, filed by 21 of the prisoners Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks to prevent the inmates from being transferred to the nation’s only federal supermax prison in Colorado.

The EO and memo violate the bill of attainder and ex post facto clauses, the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection and due process clauses, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, the complaint says.

By “condemning Plaintiffs to indefinite incarceration in harsh conditions in response to their receipt of clemency from the previous President, it exceeds the statutory authority granted to the Attorney General and her deputy, and is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion,” the complaint says. The action “was made without proper notice and comment; and otherwise is not in accordance with law.”.

President Joe Biden in late December commuted the death sentence of all but three federal prisoners on death row, reducing their sentences to life without the possibility of parole. Trump quickly changed course upon retaking the White House in January, issuing an executive order instructing the attorney general to seek capital punishment for immigrants without legal status in the country and people convicted of murdering police officers.

That executive order also called for a review of the inmates who saw their sentences commuted by Biden. The process established under that order requires the plaintiffs to be transferred from a prison in Terre Haute, Ind., to the maximum security prison in Florence, Colo., known as ADX, the complaint says.

“BOP’s policies and regulations acknowledge ADX’s harsh conditions, with a detailed process to be followed before transferring people there, including exclusions for people with medical or mental health conditions that could worsen by virtue of the extreme conditions of solitary confinement at ADX,” it says.

While the inmates originally sought a temporary restraining order that would bar the transfers from taking place as soon as next week, the Justice Department on Thursday told the court that no moves would happen before May 16. The court scheduled a May 12 hearing on whether a preliminary injunction is warranted in the case.

The lawsuit seeks to enjoin implementation of EO 14164 and the Bondi memo. It further requests an order directing the defendant to assign the plaintiffs “to the BOP facilities and units that BOP had previously determined were appropriate for each Plaintiff according to its statutory process, before the interference and overruling of those determinations by Defendant.”

Hecker Fink LLP and the ACLU Foundation represent the inmates. The US Department of Justice represents the defendants.

The case is Taylor v. Trump, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-01161, complaint filed 4/16/25.