Trump ordered Bureau of Prisons to transfer 37 Biden-commuted death-row inmates to Supermax as punishment for their clemency

On January 20, 2025, his first day back in office, President Trump issued an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to house the 37 federal death-row inmates whose sentences President Biden had commuted to life in December 2024 "in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose." The Federal Bureau of Prisons moved to redesignate the inmates, then held at the penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, to the Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado — the "ADX" Supermax, the most restrictive prison in the federal system.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump nominee, later found evidence that administration officials had made clear to the Bureau of Prisons that the inmates were to be sent to ADX specifically to punish them for Biden's commutations, and that the agency's redesignation review gave the inmates no meaningful opportunity to contest a predetermined outcome despite their hearings and appeals. Bureau of Prisons attorneys acknowledged in litigation that the referrals were "not based on the BOP's assessment of the prisoners' security needs," and Kelly characterized the process as a "sham" that likely violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause.

Bondi was, in Kelly's words, "transparent about seeking to punish" the inmates, publicly promising they would spend the rest of their lives at ADX. The 37 inmates were among 40 people on federal death row when Biden commuted their sentences on December 23, 2024, weeks before leaving office.

Updates

2025-09-25 — BOP transferred eight of the commuted inmates to ADX Florence [2, 3]

The Bureau of Prisons transferred eight of the 37 commuted inmates — Shannon Agofsky, Carlos Caro, Christopher Cramer, Joseph Ebron, Ricky Fackrell, Edward Fields, Edgar Garcia, and Mark Snarr — to ADX Florence. Attorney General Bondi confirmed the transfers publicly, writing that the agency had "begun transferring the monsters Biden commuted" following meetings with victims' families at the Justice Department, and Justice Department officials confirmed the move on the record to Fox News Digital, saying the remaining commuted inmates were expected to follow.

2026-02-11 — Federal judge blocked further transfers as a due-process "sham" [1, 4]

After the Justice Department notified the court on February 4, 2026 that it intended to transfer nearly all of the remaining commuted inmates within days, Judge Kelly issued a preliminary injunction blocking the transfer of the inmates who are plaintiffs in the litigation, finding it likely their redesignations had been decided before the process even began.