Former President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of several killers on death row at the last minute before leaving office.
Now, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wants to reverse those decisions and tell state officials to go after the death penalty for the inmates.
Bondi wrote a letter to Department of Justice (DOJ) employees on Wednesday about the commutes. In the letter, she said that Biden’s decision to grant the commutes “undermine[d] our justice system and subvert[ed] the rule of law.”
“The commutations also robbed the victims’ families of the justice promised — and fought hard to achieve — by the Department of Justice,” Bondi wrote. “The Department of Justice is directed to immediately commence the following actions to achieve justice for the victims’ families of the 37 commuted murderers.”
“Explore opportunities to provide a public forum for the victims’ families to express how the commutations affected them personally,” Bondi said, calling it an “important step” toward building trust and holding people accountable, Fox News reported.
Bondi said she would tell U.S. attorneys’ offices to use state law instead of federal law to go after people whose death sentences had been reduced. She said this would only happen “where appropriate and legally permissible” and “after consultation with the families of the victims and other interested parties.”
“The Capital Case Section shall assist the United States Attorney’s Offices in implementing this directive,” Bondi’s letter stated.
“Third, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is directed to ensure that the conditions of confinement for each of the 37 commuted murderers are consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations,” she added.
In late December, Biden took 37 people off of federal death row and changed their sentences to life in prison without the chance of release.
The White House said at the time that the move would stop President-elect Donald Trump’s government from “carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice.”
