Judge halts Trump transfer of ex-death row inmates to ‘Supermax’ prison
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A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from transferring 20 former death row inmates to the federal “supermax” prison in Colorado, ruling that the move likely violated their Fifth Amendment due process rights.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly’s 35-page decision opens up a dispute between executive authority and the procedural rights of inmates. Under Article II’s “Take Care” clause, the president is charged with enforcing federal law, and the Bureau of Prisons, overseen by the attorney general, has broad discretion in determining where inmates serve their sentences. But Kelly said the administration cannot transfer inmates without first giving them a meaningful opportunity to oppose the move.
Kelly, the Trump appointee, emphasized that his decision had nothing to do with the nature of the crimes committed by former death row inmates, noting that many of them were convicted of “some of the most horrific crimes imaginable.”
“The placement of a prisoner in ADX Florence on a life sentence raises no constitutional concerns as long as the prisoner is provided with adequate process,” he said.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks with President Donald Trump in the White House briefing room about the Supreme Court’s recent decisions. (Getty Images)
Instead, the decision focused on whether inmates were given a real opportunity to object to the transfer, which Kelly said they were not. The order represents a temporary blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to counter Biden’s sweeping acts of clemency in his final month in office; critics describe it as a political Hail Mary that lacks proper scrutiny.
“The Constitution requires that when the government seeks to deprive a person of a liberty or property rights protected by the Due Process Clause — whether that person is a notorious prisoner or a law-abiding citizen — the process it provides cannot be sham,” Kelly said.
Next steps in the case were not immediately clear, and the Justice Department declined to respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on whether it will appeal the decision.
The effort comes as Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Trump administration seek to reverse Biden’s sweeping clemency actions, including commutations for 37 death row inmates, many of whom were convicted of particularly heinous and violent crimes.
A man was convicted of killing a married couple camping in the Ouachita National Forest in July 2003.
Another was convicted of kidnapping, robbing, and killing a 51-year-old local bank president by tying him to a concrete block and chain hoist and throwing him off a bridge into a lake.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Many had also killed prisoners while serving their sentences; it’s a factor that can be used to weigh whether a convicted felon should be transferred to a higher-security prison.
“This Department of Justice will continue to demand accountability for the families who were blindsided by President Biden’s reckless replacement of 37 wild predators,” Bondi previously told Fox News Digital.
Dubbed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” ADX is the only true federal “supermax” prison in the United States, and its inmates are among the most notorious in the federal system.
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ADX Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado is a state-of-the-art isolation prison for repeat and high-profile felony offenders. (Photo: Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty Images) (Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Sygma via Getty Images)
These include Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers; former Sinola Cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán or “El Chapo”; and Mamduh Mahmud Salim, co-founder of Al Qaeda.
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Justice Department officials told Fox News Digital that while this sentence commutation cannot be fully reversed, Bondi, in coordination with Trump’s directives, is prioritizing ways to punish these individuals and ensure “conditions of confinement” are consistent with the security risks that exist because of the inmates’ egregious crimes, criminal histories and all other relevant considerations, according to an earlier Justice Department memo.
