Most of the men remain on federal death row. (Federal Bureau of Prisons, Wikimedia Commons)
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., won’t stop the U.S. government from moving 21 federal prisoners from Terre Haute to a notoriously harsh prison in Colorado.
The prisoners, among 37 men granted executive clemency by former President Biden late last year, sued the Trump administration in U.S. District Court last month.
Read more: Terre Haute prisoners sue to stop transfer to federal 'supermax' facility
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups sought a preliminary injunction to stop the Trump administration from moving the prisoners to the so-called “supermax” facility in Florence, Colorado. It is considered the highest-security facility in the United States, reserved for the most dangerous prisoners.
Judge Timothy Kelly declined to issue the injunction but warned the bureau that moving the prisoners to ADX outside usual procedures would “raise serious questions” about its motivations.
“While the court ruled that it could not order the Bureau of Prisons to leave the plaintiffs in place while they appealed their designations to ADX, the fight is far from over,” Brian Stull, deputy director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, said in an emailed statement.
“The court made clear that it expects the BOP to follow its usual procedures – which means not transferring our clients before their administrative appeals conclude.”
Stull said administration officials know that his clients can be safely housed elsewhere in the federal system because that’s what the bureau found before administration officials stepped in.
“Their politically motivated attempt to move people to ADX Florence for no other reason than the fact that they received commutations from President Biden – against the guidance of corrections professionals and without any legitimate safety rationale – is unlawful, and we intend to prove that in court,” he said.
A U.S. prisons spokesperson said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Read more: Former death row prisoners may be heading to ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies’
Most of the 21 plaintiffs are confined on federal death row in Terre Haute despite no longer being sentenced to death, after Biden commuted their sentences to life without parole.
They point to statements from President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi instructing justice officials to review their conditions of confinement to ensure they match the “monstrosity” of their crimes.
