Pardon Chief Aims for Transparency in Opaque DOJ Process

When Liz Oyer, the first known former public defender to lead the Justice Department’s pardon office, arrived in April 2022, she moved in a collection of 22 framed photographs of women serving life sentences. Oyer then commissioned a formerly incarcerated sketch artist to display around 350 copies of his black-and-white profile portraits of fellow inmates he’d originally drawn in the prison yard.

The sketches form a grid blanketing the entry hallway of the Northeast Washington office space. The photos hang on the communal wall outside Oyer’s private office, showing women in their natural prison environs—the mess hall, library, gym, and ...