U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi will meet with relatives of victims of some of the 37 death row prisoners whose sentences former President Biden commuted to life without parole last year, according to a document sent to families.
The forum will take place Wednesday morning at the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C. Families will be given the opportunity to make brief statements directly to the attorney general, according to the document.
"As we seek to better understand the way Department policies impact victims and their families, your insight and perspective is incredibly valuable. This is your opportunity to share your experience and thoughts,” the three-page document says.
The document included a list of optional suggested topics to address in the statements, including “How and when you found out about the December 2024 commutation(s) impacting your family,” “Whether it affected your ability to work or do other activities you had planned that day or for the Christmas holiday,” and “Your thoughts on how the commutation impacted your concept of justice.”
Biden issued the commutations in late December, citing his opposition to the federal death penalty and concerns that President Donald Trump would restart executions.
In 2020 and 2021, the first Trump administration carried out an unprecedented execution spree at the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute that houses death row. The administration executed 13 prisoners using lethal injection in a six-month period.
The executions were the first in nearly 20 years, and far more than any other presidential administration in a century.
The event Wednesday is closed to media and the public, the document said.
But justice officials will also be “providing an opportunity for media engagement with the Attorney General to share how you were affected by the commutations” if families choose to participate, according to the document.
A spokesperson for the U.S. department of justice didn’t respond to messages about the forum.
The gathering, titled “Forum for Victims’ Families Affected by the Death Sentence Commutations,” is something Bondi had promised in a February memorandum to U.S. justice department employees regarding the federal death penalty.
“This is an important step not only in achieving accountability, but also in building back the trust of these individuals and anyone else who has lost a loved one to violent crime,” Bondi wrote in the memo issued Feb. 5, her first day as attorney general.
The memo also directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to take steps to ensure that the conditions of confinement for the prisoners whose sentences Biden reduced “are consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations.”
Changes to those prisoners’ conditions appear to be in the works. Prisoners whose death sentences were commuted have received recommendations that they be moved to a notoriously harsh prison in the Colorado Rockies.
Twenty-one of those prisoners are suing Bondi and others in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They’re alleging that the Trump administration is seeking to punish them for receiving commutations from Biden.
Read more: Terre Haute prisoners sue to stop 'supermax' transfer
The lawsuit cites Bondi’s memo and a day-one executive order from President Trump that criticized Biden and denounced the prisoners.
The memo also directed U.S. attorneys to assist local prosecutors in pursuing death sentences under state law against those whose sentences were reduced.
At least one new prosecution is underway in Louisiana.
Prosecutors in Arizona and South Carolina are also exploring state charges against some of the prisoners.
